I have to go to PT today. I should be resting because of this damn cold.

I have a really bad cold, I must have caught it at the con, there were about a zillion people there. I don't think it's covid. I had to drag myself out of the house to get groceries including cold pills, the only kind they had at the store was some kind I never heard of. They were also out of some things I wanted, including dental floss but I'm too tired to go to other stores. I hope they work. I have to do laundry too, I am currently taking a breather and cooking lunch. Apart from this cold I'm in a good mood.

I had so much fun at the My Little Pony convention! Lots of laughs, lots of partying, lots of food, looked at interesting swag. it was a great opportunity to get to know the two friends who invited me better and they are both super super nice and generous. Saw some amazing costumes. my friends gave me a couple of plushies. I swam 16 laps in the pool (first time I had my leg scar exposed in public which I was nervous about but nobody seemed to care or notice). First time I ever played Rock Band and I sang Freebird. I know that has fuck all to do with ponies but it was cool and I went over well. I'm super tired right now, did not sleep well over the weekend but it was worth it

• Duke is in his new home. It was very hard.

My cousin's sister followed me outside and, with her very limited English, expressed to me that she does not know why her sister is sending Duke away to someone we don't know. She kept saying "I am sad. I am very sad. My heart hurts. I will miss him." This sweet seventy-something woman, on the other side of a language barrier, was expressing her grief to me as I took this family pet away. I tried to communicate that I was also very sad, and that I would miss him, too, and that I made sure that Duke would be going to a very good home where he would be safe and happy.

To those who missed it: I moved in here a little over a month ago. My cousins had inherited this dog from their deceased mother, and did not wish to keep him for very much longer. Cousin #2 told me that she was going to call the local animal shelter and "give him back" (this is the shelter he was initially adopted from eight years ago) and I said no, please don't do that, let me find a good home for him. Cousin #2 is the Filipino wife of Cousin #1, my blood relative. Cousin #2's sister and brother-in-law also live with us; these two do not have much English, and while they are very kind, they are difficult for me to communicate with.

I don't know how much she understood, but I hope she doesn't blame me, and that she understands that I also regretted the necessity of rehoming him.

It is the best possible home, I am certain of it. When I went to take him today, I learned that his new mom had already invested in new bowls, a chest full of a variety of brand new toys, new bedding, handsome new leash and collar, and more. She is patient and soft and kind. She re-arranged her entire schedule to be home with Duke for a solid week, because as she says, "I don't want him to be lonely or scared in a new house." When I left, she handed me an envelope containing a card she had prepared for me. Inside was a lovely message thanking me for letting her be Duke's new mom, and promising me that she would take good care of him and make sure he never wants for love and attention. She also included a $50 gift card to Olive Garden. What? She is a wonderful woman and I am very happy with my choice. I do miss him already, though. She said I can visit periodically, at least until I move to Wisconsin.




• Blair will be here in four days! I am SO excited to see her, and to get up to some fun things around SoCal. It's a relatively short trip; she arrives Wednesday and goes home Sunday, but that's enough time to have a nice experience. We're going to Star Wars Nite on Thursday night, Disneyland on Friday, and then on Saturday I'm taking her to La Brea Tar Pits, they Greystone Mansion, and Santa Monica Pier, then the beach. Hell, maybe we'll go on a nice date to the Olive Garden at some point, courtesy of Duke's new mom.

I have a lot to do. I have to do laundry, pack my bags, bring down all our cosplay stuff so I can make repairs on a few items and wash others. Clean out my car. Take a trip to my storage unit to store some things I've lazily just kept in the trunk.Gas up the car. Re-do the pins in my Ita bag for SW Nite. Back up and delete a bunch of photos and videos from my phone to make as much space as possible; my poor phone is consistently at like 97% capacity. T.T

We've got DnD tomorrow and I work Monday, so it'll all pretty much need to get done Tuesday.




• I've gotten back into this cute, silly little browser game called Furry Paws, where you raise, train, breed, and compete your dogs. Goals are to level up, gain fame, breed the most genetically sound pups possible, and help improve the gene pools of the game world at large through selective breeding and caring for your litters. I used to play it years and years ago. The game is over 20 years old now. Back in the day I was a top player, not to brag, so starting over completely has been really hard. Still, it's just as fun as I remember. Anyone know what this game is? Anyone play? Anyone want to? If so, let me know: I've got referral codes.

Yayyyyyyyy! I got invited to the last Bay area brony convention for the weekend! I'm leaving tomorrow night!

Cranking up the Beatles because one of my neighbors put Whitney Houston on.

Some friends and I were casually chatting, and one asked if any of us had ever read a series of books from ye olde times as kids; Goosebumps-adjacent horror for kids. Nope. Other friend asks if we've ever read a book called Wait Till Helen Comes. Also no, but I am intrigued by the premise. Turns out there's also a movie. Found said movie on Amazon and decided to give it a watch.

The credits roll, and Callum Keith Rennie's name pops up, grasps me by the shoulders, and Sparta-kicks me all the way back to the early 2000's when I first discovered Due South.

We are all connected, in the great circle of life.

I had a fairly nice day yesterday except for a couple of fuckups with the buses. That was the second day in a row a bus refused to pick me up. Also the bus that wouldn't pick me up took a VERY long time to show up and one of the buses coming back from the library was extremely crowded.
I had tea and carrot cake at my favorite cafe and then hung out at the library for most of the afternoon and then got some groceries at Trader Joe. I have birria and tortillas and rice and tomatoes and I'm going to cook a burrito for lunch before I go to physical therapy this afternoon.

L. couldn't get together with me today because they are having major probs with their computer and have to hang around their house getting that taken care of but we had a nice long phone conversation just now. Later I'm going to go to my favorite cafe and then the library. I haven't hung out at the library in a long time.

Going back to the movies again today, this time to meet a different friend and watch Harold and Maude, a movie I love and haven't seen in a long time and never on the big screen. Some of the cemetery scenes in that movie were filmed at a cemetery right down the street from where I live.

Looking forward to meeting a friend of mine at the movies this afternoon, we're going to see the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors! I'm wearing my red jacket with the embroidered Chinese dragons on it because it's the closest thing I have to those sexy green dresses with the Chinese dragons on them that the chorus wears in that one scene.

Not much going on here now. I watched the Peter Jackson King Kong again yesterday, what a wild movie!
Anybody reading this, I would advise staying off TV tropes for a while, there's something wrong with it. The pages keep going blank or showing very suspicious looking pop ups which look like malware.

The lovely: I went to Disneyland today, which is always a good time, because I mean, it's Disneyland. It was exciting getting to meet Luke Skywalker at Galaxy's Edge; for years we've been begging Disney to let us have Luke, and they finally have. He's so cute, haha. And so polite and even and softspoken. I got to shake his leather-gloved hand, hue hue hue. Disneyland closed early today to clear the park for Star Wars Nite, an after-dark event, separately ticketed. They close at 8pm, but people with event tickets are allowed in the park starting at 6pm, so it was really fun getting to see all the Star Wars party revelers and cosplayers. I can't wait until it's my turn. Blair and I will be attending this event in two weeks.

The lame: When my cousins told me "eat whatever you want, whatever you find in the kitchen," I should have understood that this was going to work both ways. Still, I was surprised to find a lot of the groceries I'd bought last week gone, eaten by other people before I could get to it. I'm torn on whether or not I should say something. After all, I do end up getting to eat a fair amount of their food also, and this is kind of just their way? Meh. I will just buy groceries in very small batches. No more than I will eat within the next couple of days. It will mean many, many extra grocery store visits, but it is what it is, and it'll keep the peace.

It has been two months since the solar paneling was put in and not only is my electric bill not any lower, it's slightly higher. And this is partly during the time period when my computer was not working so it can't have been due to higher power usages.

My leg hurts, had a physical therapy session yesterday. At least the damn scammer phone calls are less, (and only on my home phone, they NEVER call my cell) although I got one of my least favorite kind a little while ago, where they try to gaslight you into thinking you had a car accident when you didn't. It also occurs to me that since a lot of them don't speak English very well they might not understand me when I actually say "stop trying to gaslight me".
One of the gates into my apt bldg got busted late yesterday afternoon, no idea when it's going to get fixed.