in my reputation era

It’s a comfortable Sunday afternoon. I’m doing laundry and I’ve spent a few hours sitting outside in 65 degree weather and now it’s time for some water and How It’s Made – so come on in and pull up a chair and we’ll get caught up on the past week.

It’s been quite cool this week; more than once the high temperature of the day has been just under 70 (nice) and I saw a report saying that this May could be the coolest May in 15 years. I wouldn’t mind that, what with the above-average temperatures of March and April.

We’re also in a drought and under a burn ban, so the rain we had Friday and Saturday was mostly welcome, even if it did alter some folks’ plans. Interestingly, I found out that burn bans in our area typically don’t restrict “recreational” fires within 100 feet of an occupied dwelling, though some communities require a permit – and even those that do rarely enforce it. One local community a short way from me wants to both require a permit for all recreational fires (regardless of any burn ban status) and enforce it to keep down “complaints” – making me glad I do not live in that community.

Wednesday was a big day: after many years of many people advocating for me, I was offered (and accepted!) a new position at work. I had long been told “it will seem like nothing is happening for a very long time, but when things start to move, they’ll move fast” and I can confirm that they were entirely accurate: I received the news and then immediately went into several pre-scheduled meetings, the result of which was that my department and teammates found out even before I had a chance to text my wife!

It took several days for it to really sink in that it’s finally a reality . . . but now it has, and I’m getting ready to start my new role May 15th.

Then on Wednesday night we returned to Hilan in our D&D campaign. It was so good to be back gaming with friends after several weeks away. Of course, we left off on a real cliffhanger as we finally confronted the corrupted version of my own former-character Garrett. We’ve already encountered the “worst” (not necessarily “evil, to be clear) versions of NPCs from our original campaign; I have the distinction of having played the first player character we are fighting. As I’m writing this blog post I don’t have the session notes types up; I imagine we’ll be starting next game by rolling initiative – it’s going to be epic.

And speaking of our original D&D campaign, it was three years ago this week that kicked off two of the most memorable weeks I’ve had to date, kicking off with the memory of attending Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in Atlanta.

It was after this concert that we traveled north to meet our D&D friends, collectively called the DotComrades, for the first time in person.

Friday was May 1, and some folks celebrate this as the start of spring. I used the afternoon to go to some friends’ property and get some outdoor therapy as prescribed by my therapist. I’ll be glad to report that I completed that particular homework come our next session. Then I ran an errand and Krystal and I arrived home at nearly the same time.

We decided to go out to celebrate the good news of the week, and I chose a pub-type place where I got a bowl of lobster bisque, a chopped steak with onions and peppers and a side of sautéed mushrooms, and we split a slice of cheesecake.

The weather had been fickle Friday but Saturday it was truly raining. I went grocery shopping early in the morning (once again set back by half an hour due to floor maintenance at my second stop) and then together we went thrifting.

I found some books while Krystal found a wood lap desk and a blue ink bottle.

But my biggest find of the day was a still-wrapped cd of Taylor Swift’s album, reputation.

Taking it home, I did some sleuthing. Based on exterior clues such as the UPC code and promotional sticker style, I felt fairly certain the CD was from one of the first retail distributions in 2017, but it was confirmed when I broke the seal, opened the case, and found a “Taylor Swift Tix Boost” that expired at noon on November 28, 2017.

While I certainly didn’t find one of the first discs off the press, I did find one that would have been bought during the initial release.

I listened to the album from start to finish.

That evening I attended a potluck; I took vegetarian (beans and tomatoes; no meat) chili. It was a hit. There was a lot of food and some dishes were eaten entirely, about two-thirds of my chili was eaten.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans Bush’s Best Mixed Chili Beans (with sauce)
• 1 can Hunt’s diced tomatoes (basil, garlic & oregano)
• 1 can Hunt’s fire roasted garlic tomatoes
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp instant espresso coffee
• 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp honey
• ½ cup vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put it all into a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. And you know? Maybe I should have put an onion in there . . .

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Last night I realized that a lava stone bracelet given to me as a gift several months ago was missing. I had it Friday doing that errand before going out to eat, but now it’s nowhere to be found.

I’ve cleaned both my car and the two-and-a-half rooms I was in afterwards from top to bottom, both looking for the bracelet and in anticipation of our quarterly inspection this week, but it hasn’t turned up. What has turned up is a necklace Krystal gave me with an “extra spoon” on it, a pair of fingernail clippers, and the remote to the DVD player I thought I lost months ago during a bout of sickness in which I spent three days being barely conscious. I had since replaced that remote with a universal remote capable of controlling both the DVD player and the TV (with the exception of toggling closed captioning).

The bracelet will undoubtedly turn up eventually.

Tonight I’m thinking of doing a ham and pineapple pizza. I’ve already fried up the ham and pineapple with an onion so all I really have to do later on is make the dough and assemble the pizza then bake and enjoy.

Perhaps I’ll enjoy it with a “Dirty Mountain Dew” – a limited edition “cream soda” version of the drink that I bought on sale because we wanted to try it but didn’t want to pay full price.

We’ll see how it goes.

How about you?

What have you been up to?