I’ve just returned from a work trip to the Pacific Northwest and I spent a great deal of time riding with people whose views were, to put it kindly, opposed to my own. The most striking thing about listening to them was how often they were mad about imaginary people. A lot of comments…

I love seeing the cats comfortable and sharing space. Alexander and Thomas in the living room, Artemis and Thomas in the arm chairs, and Alexander trying to figure out a toy while Thomas watches from offscreen. Alexander is so orange.

Popes are notoriously weak on crime, they’re clerics and even Trickery Domain clerics have terrible sleight of hand skills and usually don’t put many points into dexterity. This is why you need a balanced party!

To all who celebrate

Post-run pets with Thomas. I adore that ridiculous face he makes when getting pet on the nose. Normally there’s even more fang showing.

On the off chance Trump is alive, it would be really funny and make a lot of terrible people angry if we all refused to admit it. Just act confused, ask people what they’re talking about, and tell them that he died on April 4th and it’s really weird that his kids aren’t more upset.

Today for pedicures with Pratchett I’m going with Hogfather, one of my old favorites. It’s the last of the Death books that I didn’t already own a copy of, and my local bookstore is running a bit low on Pratchett books I don’t have but I was happy to see they’ve got all of the Tiffany Aching books.

Thomas has taken to curling up in this recliner in the mornings on the blanket and I love seeing him so happy and comfortable. He and Alexander sometimes also share the cat tree, for a given value of sharing.

Spent part of the afternoon visiting the Spanish Governor’s Palace in San Antonio, which actually belonged to a presidio captain, and then paid a visit to the World Heritage Center to learn about the historical missions. A pleasant way to spend a few hours and learn about the area.

As Trump start firing cabinet officials in a desperate attempt to create scapegoats it’s worth remembering that a Scaramucci is a negative unit of time as he was fired before his official start date. You count Scaramuccis backwards from the firing to the initial announcement.

It’s been a long and busy day, but I just want to take a few seconds to say some things: Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Trans rights are human rights. We should just let people live their own lives and find happiness where they can.

Finished Wolf Worm by @tkingfisher.com and it was a delightfully horrifying ride that fit their style and educated while simultaneously being deeply unsettling. I could see the story coming together but the last twists were a wild ride that brought all the breadcrumbs together in the end.

There’s a lot going on in the world right now, and much of it is awful. It’s perfectly natural to be overwhelmed and to just take things day by day. People have done that during hard times for as long as there have been people. Try to be kind and give a bit of grace to others and to yourself first.

I have started reading Wolf Worm by @tkingfisher.com and I’m going in completely blind since I just click the pre-order button as soon as I see their name. Excited to see what horrors await me!

Thomas lying in the sunbeam this afternoon, utterly relaxed. Long cat is indeed long. Catnip banana for scale.

A two-part adventure today, starting with a river tour at the San Antonio riverwalk. A pretty fun way to kill half an hour with some interesting stories about the buildings and how the area was designed.

Went to to visit the Fort Sam Houston museum today, which will unfortunately be closing on 1 APR as part of the DOD’s cost cutting efforts. It’s a fun, small, and free museum that addresses the early colonial and military history of the region. I appreciated the exhibits highlighting diversity.

I may have started a new routine with Thomas. A couple of days ago I got up to shave then sat down on a bathroom mat and he curled up in my lap. Yesterday he did it again. He’s also started curling up on funny and not just on cat beds, getting much more comfortable.

Finished up the main quest of Oblivion Remastered and found it overall a fun game. It’s definitely a product of its time and you can see where they improved on things in Skyrim, but I liked how the class system gave some boundaries and helped with the desire to join every questline.

Dinner has been provided, in accordance with the prophecy.

They know nothing of daylight savings time, but they are huge fans of getting dinner an hour early.

This is the most accurate description of I-35 I have ever seen. www.instagram.com/reel/DVjjcs9...

I felt terrible today having to scoop Thomas out of his basket this morning, but he had a vet appointment so it was necessary. He has a clean bill of health in his follow up visit. Alexander, meanwhile, was comfortably tucked in this morning.

Homemade curry is even better the second day. This is chicken, chickpea, and potato curry with rice and garlic naan. I’m so happy with how this turned out.

Hopefully the last picture of Thomas as a fashionista for a while. We ended up ordering the donut in a smaller size after the first one was still a bit too big. He did not approve of the smaller version either, but we took it off for dinner last night and he’s been very good about not overgrooming.

Update 2: The sunflower cone was giving Thomas a bit of difficulty moving around so we ordered something that would hopefully give him a bit more mobility. Looking at his expression it doesn’t seem like he feels better being the world’s grumpiest donut but he is navigating the house better.

Update: Thomas still LOOKS like the world’s angriest sunflower but he accepted skritches and crawled into my lap to cuddle immediately after this picture was taken.

After an unexpected trip to the veterinary urgent care Thomas is currently the world’s angriest sunflower. He had a ruptured anal gland and the other one was impacted. Two weeks of antibiotics and a recheck planned.

The view when Thomas comes up to cuddle. He is very insistent.

There’s a certain peace when bad weather that’s been forecast finally arrives, like the natural order of things has somehow been restored. I can hear the ice pattering down on the roof and the windows and it’s almost a comforting sound.

In brighter news, we got a new cat tree that Alexander is a big fan of and getting back into our normal routine had some playtime this morning before I went for a run. Alexander and Thomas even used the tree together… although there was some bapping a second after the last picture was taken.

Update on the Hertz banditry: received an email today stating that they would be refunding the gas charge plus an additional five dollars because in addition to charging more than three times the current price per gallon for gas they also charged sales tax on top of that. Literal highway robbery.

I’ve been replaying Hades since the first time I played my wife didn’t get a chance to watch and I’ve unlocked everything except Sisyphus. I realized today that I missed a step so I’ve been doing the same thing repeatedly and making no progress which is actually pretty funny if you think about it.

I swear those bandits at Hertz use gas pumps without pressure sensors to fill up their cars and charge you for fuel. I filled up less than a mile from the airport until the pump wouldn’t run anymore and they’re still trying to charge me for 2 gallons of gas.

Before the current insanity we went to the Witte Museum yesterday. It’s small, but has a few really awesome fossils and an exhibit about the various biomes of Texas. The special exhibit about the ocean depths was also fun to see, and some great historical exhibits.

The Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum feels like a monument to taxidermy, with a collection of frankly bizarre artifacts and a bolted on old west and law enforcement section. Not the worst way to spend an afternoon, and a pretty solid burger.

Truly, the comfiest of little men. It’s a bittersweet joy to see him curling up in the basket since Freddie used to curl up in there, but someone should enjoy it.

It’s a wonderful feeling to have a cat you adopted jump on the bed to cuddle against your chest. Thomas is relaxing into a very happy boy and I’m so glad we brought him home. He’s very good about playing with toys like this and not trying to eat them, in case anybody is concerned.

For Christmas Eve we visited the Natural Bridge Cavern again. 17 years after our first visit a lot has changed around the entrance, but the caves themselves are as timeless and awe-inspiring as ever. If you have any sense of wonder, you can’t help but be amazed at the sight.

Watching the Sky1 adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather” and I’m just left thinking that if I had a nickel for every time I’ve watched a program about a supernatural figure replacing Santa I’d have 15 cents, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened thrice.

Playing the Dragon Quest I remake and they give you a bonus item if you have a save from the DQ III remake. Said item is a dog suit that has higher defense than anything you can buy in the first couple towns, so my character is running around like some kind of murderhobo furry. 10/10, no notes.

Today’s pedicure read is Reaper Man since someone mentioned Bill Door. I thought about Hogfather, but we’ll probably watch that later this week. Bonus pics of Thomas grabbing my hand and pulling it in to lick it, and helping himself to some sink water.

Thomas does chest cuddles, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes when I don’t get up for my alarm. He’s too restless to do it for long, but it’s incredibly sweet. I love his boxy little muzzle. Don’t be fooled by the cats, they’re back because he was forcing his head into my hand a moment ago.

Every day I drive by a sign claiming that a local ER has an average wait time of under 4 minutes and today my brain came up with “Average wait time is not 4 minutes, Spiders Georg who was seen in 2 seconds because he was covered in spiders was a statistical outlier and should not have been counted.”

Alexander and Artemis are our Black Friday cats, coming to us on separate Black Fridays two years apart. Alexander came up to our back door in pursuit of the smell of split pea ham soup, while we found Artemis abandoned outside of a Marine barracks on a walk. After 8 years they’ve become friends.

My wife is playing The Witcher 3 and her disdain for some of the side quests is so impressive. “You have to play Gwent or this guy will die.” “Then I guess he’s gonna die.” “You have to win a horse race or you’ll have to pay 200 crowns.” “I’ve got 8,800 crowns, no problem.” Absolute queen behavior.

Hit chapter 3 in the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, which is excellent, and I’m struck by the implications of its mid-magic world. There are wizards and monsters, but all of the great miracles are in the past. When the protagonist runs into something at that level, he can’t exactly tell anyone.

Today we took advantage of the holiday to go to the San Antonio Zoo. It’s a small zoo, but well designed, with an excellent reptile house. It also has some..: unique… exhibits you won’t see in many other places.

It’s another Sunday for Pratchett and pedicures. I think I’m just in the mood for the Watch series right now but I am tempted to pull down my copy of Carpe Jugulum at some point.

Indian restaurants that only do buffet on the weekend should be required to put that at the top of their website in bright red letters. I go to Indian restaurants to order something so spicy that Shiva would weep with envy for the destruction about to be wrought on my innards, not mild buffet curry.