[Note: post on June 30th on Dreamwidth, but I forgot to crosspost here until today]

Allo, mes amies! Sneaking in under the time limit with my monthly post once more. I am now 38 years old, which seems somehow less old than 37 and also, like, a lot older? It's weird. But it's a nice colour, so I'll hope for a good year.

The last couple of weeks have not boded well for that; it's been something of a series of unfortunate events. On the bright side, Pax is now free from all gates! He is no longer confined to the kitchen at night time. He was starting to throw hissy fits and bang on the gate in the middle of the night, so we decided to see if he had just outgrown it and he's been much happier overall and very well-behaved. We've just had some interesting events arise as we're all adjusting to it, along with some adventures in cat-sitting.

CW: sick cats and anxiety attacks, but with happy endings.

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So, it's been a couple of weeks. But today we went up to my sister-in-law's family's cottage to have lunch and had a lovely, sunny day near the lake and a great time chatting with my brother's friends who had also come to visit. And Pax stayed by himself without any gates and was a good boy the whole time. Happy endings!

Hope everyone else is doing well! It's Canada Day tomorrow and I know July 4th is upon on us, so enjoy your celebrations if you are those who celebrate either holiday! 

Hey look, I did a thing! Yay me!

Some Due South daemons, because whenever I get into a fandom I like to give daemons to characters. I had previously done Fraser and Ray K, and I kept Ray's basically the same but redid Fraser's now that I've rewatched the show and decided my previous choice wasn't quite right. Some of the minor characters don't get much development and my choices for them are kind of 'vibes + one thing I know about them' and are thus less detailed.

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Squeezing in under the line here in my resolution to post at least once a month. Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and for those who don’t, enjoy your time off!

I write from Oliver IV, my new iPad. Mum’s old iPad finally reached the point where her games weren’t running on it anymore and she reluctantly decided to get a new one. Hers was ten years old, which is like a thousand in electronic years, so kudos to her for her loyalty. My old iPad got knocked on the floor a few months back and the screen cracked, just a hairline crack that was hardly noticeable and not worth replacing it over, but my Apple Pencil kept getting stuck in the crack when I was trying to do art. I got a screen protector, but then the Pencil didn’t glide properly, so Mum and I agreed mine was in good working order and she’d take mine and I’d get a new one for myself. I splurged and got the Magic Keyboard Folio, which turns it into a laptop, essentially, and it was totally worth it. I love being able to write wherever I am and it’s much easier to plug my microphone in for singing, instead of having to take the whole thing out of the case for my dongle to work.

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I'm making it my goal this year to post at least once a month on here, so here I am for February.

January ended up being rather stressful. It's a complicated story, but the short version of it is my mum got a call back in December about an ultrasound she'd had as a part of a regular monitoring of her liver (she has Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in relation to diabetes) saying there was a 6mm high density area on it. Through a series of preventable but inevitable events given the state the healthcare system is in, we basically had to wait nearly two months to find out that it was...nothing. Literally nothing, as in, there was an error on the ultrasound image itself. Which, we found out from our GP when we finally got the results from a CT my mum had at the liver doctor's orders, the radiologist basically said when he read the ultrasound images and recommended just repeating the ultrasound in three months to see, but the liver clinic a) didn't bother to tell us that, and b) decided to do a CT instead. Also, despite the fact that Mum had the CT on Jan 17th, the liver clinic has never bothered to call to tell her the results. We had to call the GP two weeks after the CT to ask if she had the report. Mum was very chill through all of it, she was sure it was nothing from the off, but Dad and I are worriers, so it was hanging over us a bit. And waiting for the results was taxing. Two weeks is a long time. I'm glad that's all over with.

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Happy New Year! 2024 is a good colour year according to my synesthesia, so let's hope it bodes well.

Pax decided to cap off 2023 by eating a bunch of plastic, which was not cool. We didn't discover this had been done for several hours, however, and as he was showing no signs of distress, we elected to monitor him and, without going into graphic detail, everything passed safely through before the New Year. He has been given a stern talking to and I'm sure will reflect on his behaviour and modify it accordingly.

He also had an ear infection a few weeks ago, and I had to put medicine in his ears twice a day for a week, which was an ordeal. I have never felt like as much of a monster as when I was chasing him around and he would just sit down in defeat and go 'fine, do it', and put his little ears back and snort. No betrayal in history has been greater in Pax's mind than his very own Favourite Person torturing him in this way. I did it a breakfast and supper to establish a routine, so I wasn't springing it on him all the time, and even now, nearly a month later, if I do something around that time that he interprets as 'suspicious', he'll flee from the kitchen in anticipation. We've made up otherwise, however, and I actually think he's a lot more comfortable with being touched and handled than he has been. Which is good, because the vet told me I also need to be brushing his teeth, so that's a project we shall be embarking upon shortly. Yay.

Christmas was pleasant, too. It's sometimes hard to track your health day to day when you're chronically ill, but I can certainly see a marked improvement from last year in how much more energy I had and how much easier it was to get Christmas together. I didn't have the slump afterwards I usually have, that kind of depressed 'that was so much effort for one night' kind of feeling. I was tired, but not exhausted, so I definitely think that's a sign I've made progress. We got to my sister-in-law's family's thing and that was nice, and we had the kids for Christmas Eve and went to their place on Boxing Day, and it was a lot of fun.

I hope any festivities you celebrated brought you joy and your 2024 is prosperous!

Gracious me! I keep meaning to post and keep putting it off. But I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to the Yanks, so I figured I'd take the time to do a proper post while I'm here. Happy Thanksgiving, Yanks!

I feel like both a lot of stuff has been going on and yet nothing's really happened, which is weird. It's more, there's a lot of activity but not a lot of progress, I guess. I have my new mattress and a new fan, and we got my old bed out of my room. Unfortunately, my new bed did not work out. Flat pack furniture is always hit and miss and the central support of this one was flimsy and poorly made. I had two nights before it gave out, thankfully not while I was in it. Much drama was had, but we think we can salvage parts of it to make a new set up. We got it on very good sale, so if we can get anything out of it, the money won't be wasted. Right now my mattress is on the floor, but I'm having my best sleep in months, possibly years down there, so we're thinking we might see if we can rig something lower for me. I feel like my room is a doomed venture; every time I try to work on it, something goes awry. But I am always grateful that I at least have a place to sleep and that we have the means to experiment.

We also had a family friend pass away. My sister-in-law's aunt, Barb, died a few weeks ago. My SIL's family has always been kind enough to include us in their gatherings, so we spend quite a bit of time with her, despite the distant connection. She was developmentally delayed and lived in a care home, and was such a bright, happy spirit, always very fun to be around. She was seventy-two and lived a good, adventurous life. She even went to the Special Olympics as a swimmer, which we didn't know until the memorial service. She will be missed.

Mum's health has improved; she went to the doctor and got some extra meds and is feeling a lot better on them. My stones have been pretty good, but the weather has made me migrainey. Any fellow migraineurs get deja vu or presque vu with their auras? I've had some weird bouts of that lately that I think are related.

Also, Paxie had graduated from the kitchen at last! We still put him in there at night and when none of us are home, but otherwise, he's allowed to wander as he pleases during the day, except in the bedrooms. Mostly because they're messy and full of temptation, which is our fault not his.

I've been watching a show on CBC Gem called "Miss S". It's a Chinese version of "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries", which Mum and I watched all of and loved. "Miss S" is set in 1930s Shanghai instead of Australia, but otherwise the characters and stories are mostly the same, just localized. It's been just long enough since I watched Miss Fisher for me to forget who the culprit is, so I don't mind the stories repeating, and I find the changes they make to suit the culture really interesting. The actors are really great and the leads are adorable and have great chemistry. There's a bit of a cultural gap on my part, not so much within the show, but the differences between Chinese and western media. Like, whenever a character comes on screen for the first time, their name pops up next to them to tell you who they are, and one scene had the lyrics of the song being played on the screen. I had to figure that out by screenshotting and running the picture through Google Translate, because the subtitles were not giving me the names or the lyrics and I didn't know what was happening at first. The subtitles are a little hit or miss, mostly just in that they are awkward sometimes. 'That's very sorry' instead of 'that's very unfortunate' and inadvertently making me laugh when a character describes his brother being murdered in a somewhat brutal fashion and follows it up with 'it really gets me down', to which Miss S agrees 'yes, it gets me down, too'. I feel like there was probably a more appropriate way to translate that sentiment than something akin to 'what a bummer, dude'. There also seems to be a trope that if anything romantic is happening it turns to slo-mo and soap opera-like music plays. They only made one season, apparently, but there are 30 episodes (15 stories of two episodes each), so lots to watch, and I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. CBC Gem is region locked, but it looks like it's on Prime, Apple, and Max, so if you have any of those, you can check it out. It's a lot of fun, not too too violent, and the recurring actors are all adorable and have great chemistry together.

Anyway, hope all are doing well in these continually crazy times. Enjoy your festivities if you are festiviting and take care of yourselves!

Eeek! I get worse and worse in updating my journal. Here I am, though, alive.

It's been a rough time since we last spoke. Mum's chronic back thing is acting up mightily and I've been passing stones like a mad thing, and both of us had the worst migraines of our lives at different points, and even poor Pax had a couple of days of being unwell. We're not sure what happened, but he started vomiting at around 3AM one night and proceeded to vomit every half hour until 6:30, then stopped. Then he did the exact same thing the next night. Then he was fine and has been fine since. I can only assume he ate something outside and then ate it again the next night. It was very unpleasant and very concerning, but he's totally fine now.

Otherwise, things have been just...happening. Like normal. I've read a lot of books now that my brain is able to focus on that again. I've been writing a lot, just original stuff I don't know will ever see the light of day, but it's fun and I get to do lots of research for it. I do more research than writing, honestly. My brain is still a bit foggy for coherent narrative. We've also been very slowly working on getting my room redone, a project I've been trying to do for literally close to sixteen years now that just kept getting pushed aside with all the health stuff that's gone on. But I have a bed now! It's not assembled, but I have it! And a new mattress. And I'm working away at cleaning the room up and out to make space to get the old bed out and the new one in. Our whole house is kind of a mess, which happens when you're all chronically ill. I feel like we're starting to make progress, though, despite the health flares.

Dad has hyper-fixated on Mad Men, which is on Amazon Prime here. He started about a week ago, if that, and I think he's on season six now. He literally lies down in the afternoon and puts it on and watches it until the news at 11. Every hour, you can hear the tango opening theme play once again as the next episode rolls out. We got him a Roku for his room at Christmas time, and he's made very good use of it. It's cute, because he's not a guy who does fiction normally. Everything he reads is non-fiction except for John Grisham novels and everything he watches is a documentary or reality, with a few exceptions that are usually 'this is based on a real person'. He had a The Tudors phase earlier this year, and a Versailles phase. But this is the most I've seen him hyperfixate yet, and it's funny to hear him talk about it, because it's like he's never encountered fiction before. He likes it because 'they all have different personalities' and 'there are lots of situations and scenarios'. So, he likes that there are characters and a plot, I guess. It's very cute. Even if I have the tango stuck in head.

Anyway, I hope all y'all are hanging in there. Stay safe and cool!

This is Ruby the kalanchoe and she has worked very hard to grow this flower and we should all be very proud of her for being so brave.

Hello there good people! I hope anyone who observes Easter, Passover, and/or Ramadan has had/is having a good/joyous/generous one. We had my brother and SIL over on Sunday for a chill brunch that was very pleasant.

Overall, things have been pretty good here. Mum and I are both suffering from the Spring flare-ups that happen every year. I don't know how kidney stones can have a flare up, but I swear they do. Before that, though, things were going super well and we were getting a lot accomplished and working on projects, and we're still doing that, but less so because we're a little under the weather.

But I've managed to knit two purses for myself. My beloved old one finally could no longer function, so I decided to see if I could just make one for myself. I'm the worst about patterns; I can never follow one to the letter. I start one and if it's not beautiful in, like, five rows, I go 'nope!' and start on something else. About halfway through I decide it's terrible and I hate it and my mum very patiently encourages me to go onwards and then finally I end up with something I like. Here are the products of this hectic, artistic process:



The one on the left is one I kind of winged the pattern for, taking the stitch count and flap decreases from one pattern and making up everything else myself. It's a bit wonky, but overall I like the look of it, and I'm not as proficient in knitting as I am in crochet. You have to be wonky while you're mastering a skill. The other purse is somewhat closer to what the actual pattern I chose for it called for, but I scaled it down and changed the handle and added the top i-cord trim, which took forever and essentially called for knitting with two crochet hooks, but I enjoyed the process. I like the second guy better--I think he's more uniform--but I feel like the first guy is more my style. Well, they both are, I guess. Sometimes I'm boho, sometimes I'm sparkly.

The other thing we've been working on is trying to grow some milkweed for the monarch butterflies. We want to make a butterfly/bee garden in the backyard. A friend of my mum's from her exercise class gathered milkweed pods from around where she lived and my mum gave me them for Christmas, along with a little indoor greenhouse. It's a process to get them going, and our first batch produced only two seedlings, one of which spontaneously died for unknown reasons, but our second batch looks a little healthier.



My much put upon kalanchoe has also decided to perk up. Mum got me one as a Valentine's Day present a few years ago and despite my loving care, she grew mould on her and I genuinely thought she was dead, but in completely ignoring her, she somehow fought off the infestation and recovered and has been slowly getting bigger and bigger by me sneaking up behind her and putting a little water in her and then ignoring her so she doesn't get too overwhelmed. Now she's growing a flower again! She's very nervous about it, and hasn't opened it yet even though she's had it for quite awhile now, but I hope she'll work up the courage to bloom soon. If she does, I'll take a picture. I think she's very pretty even without any flowers, and I'm very proud of her working through her illness to shine again, so whatever happens, I will support her life choices.

We've been having good TV around here lately, though, as always, the only three shows we watch in a week are on on the same night, so we DVR them all and spread them out through the week. We've been watching Sullivan's Crossing on CTV, which is new this year and based on books Mum and I have read. It's very enjoyable, very Canadian, a little bit cheesy, but in a good kind of way. I prefer cheese to angst. We're also watching Sanditon and Call the Midwife, but the DVR had a meltdown one night and refused to tape them, and we couldn't find Call the Midwife anywhere to catch up on it, so we'll have to wait until it comes to Britbox. PBS wants you to think you can use Passport, but if you're in Canada, you can watch, like, two shows on it and the rest are region locked. Sanditon we were able to buy from Apple TV, at least.

I have some new glasses on the way. I had my yearly check-up and mentioned I was still having trouble reading, especially when I'm tired, so my doctor suggested reading glasses with a higher prism than my multi-focals to try to get my eyes to align together since my lazy eye is such a bitch about teamwork. You can't put more than one prism strength in a single lens, unfortunately, and I need a different one for distance, so I'll have my multi-focals for most things, then the reading glasses specifically for...you know, reading.

I think that's all! Happy Spring, I hope you will get some good weather soon if you have not already. The sun has abandoned us here. It's been the darkest winter in 78 years, apparently, but we made it through.

Hello, there! I'm doing one of my 'I'm still alive' check-ins. Hope all y'all are doing well and making it through the first 1/12th of 2023 without too much drama.

We've been through the gamut of weather here. We were one of the worst hit zones for Winter Storm Elliot in Ontario over Christmas. I have literally never seen that much snow fall that consistently for that length of time. It was whiteout conditions for nearly 24 hours on Christmas Eve. We didn't lose power, luckily, but we lost WiFi, cable, and phone for about 36 hours which made entertaining ourselves very interesting. I was able to use the iPhone as a hotspot to power our iPads enough to get updates and check social media for info, and to log-in to play the Sims, but we had to buy two extra rounds of data to cover us. We never use the phone, it's a hand me down from my brother, and it's only equipped for emergencies, so we don't have unlimited data. Dad suggested we have some of the ice wine he bought for Mum as a present and it turns out we don't have a corkscrew, because we hardly ever drink. Literally just ice wine during the holidays. Ever stubborn and determined, Dad disappeared downstairs and after several minutes of banging and drilling, arrived back with this:



It worked though, and the ice wine was really good!

My brother and his wife obviously didn't attempt to get here on Christmas Eve, which is when we normally do our thing, and we postponed it to Christmas Day, when everything had calmed down and the roads were clear. It was very pleasant and we had a good time. They gave Pax a coat as a gift, which I managed to get on him once before he knew what it was:



He immediately caught on and has refused to come near me if I'm holding it since then, not even for the best of treats. I'm not surprised; he still hates putting a collar on.

He's been doing well lately. We started the NSAID for him and he has some supplements the vet recommended and he's definitely more active and happier than before. Scotties are so stoic and Pax is so happy, it's hard to know how much pain he was in before, but he's definitely busier and more spry. Which isn't necessarily a good thing; he's been a told brat over the last few days. He's decided he doesn't want to go to bed at night for some reason and now does a little showdown with us about it until he's made up his mind to do it. And last night, he cried for an hour in the kitchen around 2AM because he wanted to go hunt bunnies under the back deck and no one would let him. So, we're happy he's feeling better, but perhaps Pax at full strength is a mixed blessing...

In other news, my HB1AC is down! That means my blood sugar is lower overall, which is a good thing. And my PCOS shit is doing a lot better with the new medication. Just the stones giving me grief on and off, but you have to count your victories. I think another good sign is that I can read books again all of a sudden. I was having trouble getting my brain to focus for ages, but I've read three books since Christmas, so perhaps that's a sign I'm starting to get my focus back.

Otherwise, I'm just playing the Sims and crafting, and we have a jigsaw puzzle on the go. Early winter is always a good time on PBS for shows we like to watch and Brit Box has been throwing up panels shows left and right, so we have a lot to keep us entertained, even as we get rain and snow and all things in between.