cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

I'm out of practice and habit of posting. I'm reading everyone, just not making any of my own contributions to the hivemind. The holidays are hitting me hard this year with exhaustion and hermitage and illness.

Both kids started coming down with head colds right before Hogswatch. I now have their colds. This is no fun.

We made a tactical logistical error in our Hogswatch travelling. We first went to Iowa to spend a couple days with my family. We then went straight to Illinois to hang with Downwood's family. On our way home from there, the back of the car was packed to within an inch of its life. It was impressive and reminded us why we don't make multiple visits - too much stuff to bring home.

Yes, the kids made out like bandits. Again. They got legos, dolls, giant fluffy blankets, clothes, and many other things. Downwood and I got a selection of lovely things, too. The gifts we gave seemed to be taken well, so that was a nice feeling. I also got many compliments on the dresses, leggings, and shirts that I made for myself and Emi. 

And there was food and booze. And both kids went on hunger strikes, eating maybe one meal a day. Maybe.

We still haven't been able to see Rogue One. Nor have we been to see Moana or Sing. I want to go, but haven't felt up to leaving the house more than absolutely necessary lately.

I came back to work yesterday. I don't have another vacation scheduled yet to look forward to. The Evil Empire only closes for actual Jan 1, so even though my counterparts will likely all be off on Monday, I'll be here.

I'm tired. I know I've accomplished things, but I couldn't tell you what. I'm ready for the holidays to be over and things to go back to "normal". Whatever that is.

I went to the bank. It was easy.
I went to Walgreens. Took forever.
I went to the grocery store. Utter madhouse

I am home. I have provisions. I have books. I have games. I have very cute kids.

I also have a new CD from Seanan McGuire. 

Happy Hogswatch, everyone!

 We went to my in-laws' this weekend for xmas #1. On the way out of town Friday night, it started snowing. The weather forecast said NOTHING about snow, so we figured it'd pass.

All the weather stations are saying that we're about to get dumped on. Downwood doesn't know if he'll be physically able to get to work tomorrow and I don't know if I'm going to be mentally willing to do anything other than hibernate for a month or so. My lightbox is seriously helping with this year's SAD, as is shaping up my diet and regularly going to the gym. I'm in a better mental place than I could be, which is good considering that I have Too Much To Do on my Hogswatch gifts.

Maybe I'm being overly ambitious. This is not an unlikely possibility. I have a couple of sewing projects to work on, as well as a glue/paint/paper project that I've only barely started. I'm at 22% completion on my annual cookie binge and I think I can get another batch completely done and two doughs in the "chill overnight" stage tonight. I'm not as far behind as I could be, but the overachiever voice in my brain says that I should be panicking more.

Feh.

My new car continues to be made of win. I drove out to Des Moines on Friday to visit my sister and to go to the Nada Silent Night show. It was truly rocking, we had seats dead center in the second row, and did our part to jack up the prices in the silent auction. It was a sold out show with the entrance price being a ticket and a toy for Toys for Tots. All the proceeds from the auction went to Habitat for Humanity, too. We had an absolute blast!

Also, I brought home a bottle of Templeton Rye. You should all be jealous. Smoothest whiskey ever. If you go to the Media tab, you can listen to the song that the Nadas wrote about this amazing, wonderful beverage and its history.

Okay. Enough procrastinating. I'm going to finish my tea and find something to keep me busy until I can leave to go to the gym. Goal for tonight - week 3 day 1 of the Couch to 5k program. I don't know whether my legs will want to fall off or my lungs try to stage a break for it. Either way, I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

I live! Well, I mostly live. I'm doing my best to fight off the Plague that always seems to happen right around the holidays (go, immune system, go!) and did I mention that the holidays are starting? I have orange juice thawing under the faucet and I've been drinking Calm and Candy Cane Lane like they're going out of style. Also, yay for exercise!

Thanksgiving with the in-laws was very nice. We got to get out town for a little while, Rain got to stay overnight at Grandpa's, and it was good to see Downwood's grandparents. His whole family are very nice and don't seem to be quite so breathing-down-your-neck as some of mine. We need to spend more time down there - or have them come to us - in general. I'd really like to have that happen.

Black Friday was spent at my desk at work. I got a couple of Major Projects Nearing Set-In-Stone Looming Deadline sort of done. The really slow part, the part that takes a solid block of time to just sit there and work through the code? Yep, I got that hammered through and the Projects passed back to the original owners for edits and rework. This was good, since I got another Major Project dropped on me this morning (due very early Thursday). Here's how that conversation went:
( Annoying coworker conversation. This will kill brain cells. )

This weekend was the D&D Certain Death Invitational. My players created very standard, very basic, very PHB/DMG 10th level characters of reasonably good alignment. They were told by their boss, the High Poobah of the Heroes' Guild, that they were needed to mop up a litter of baby chromatic dragons. They set forth with a chicken-livered guide and, after debating whether or not it was a good idea to ring the doorbell at the secret entrance to the dragons' lair, managed to beat down a magma drake.

I then called each player aside. I confiscated their character sheet and handed them a new one.

The baby dragons of Tiamat's Day Care - Quality Care for All Evil Wyrmlings fought valiantly against the wrongdoers of good who were trying to wipe them out. The players cheered when their original characters took damage and did a pretty good job at holding their own against the enemy. We had to call in reinforcements when the blue got KOed and the green got splatted (huge crit when she only had 3 hit points left. splat.), but Evil held their ground. A couple of the heroes got away, but they were seriously hurting when they did. I call this a stunning success!


And then we come to tonight's subject line. I was trying to come up with something to make for dinner tomorrow night that wouldn't require me to get dressed and go to the grocery store tonight (ie, anything that needs advance prep was Dead Out - chili, roast, lasagna, etc). I poked around in my freezer and found venison loin, ginger, and orange juice. Since I helpfully have garlic on hand At All Times and I found both the soy sauce and the rice wine vinegar, I'm thinking that this marinade is going to be delicious. I just have to stop on my way home tomorrow for veggies and get Downwood to start the rice and it will be a Wonderful Dinner. Yus.

But since I hear my book, my tea, and the couch calling me, I will stop with the typing and make with the recreating. I love being an adult! Maybe, just maybe, I'll throw in the DVD of Hogfather that I picked up at Borders yesterday...