I'm tired, all. Friday, I was with my mom when the vet came to our house and we said goodbye to her little dog Riley. Today, while at a celebration of life for my friend KC, hubs texted that his brother's father in law passed away this afternoon (Tom had a stroke earlier in the week). Enough. 😞

I'm taking my loc extensions out. I've had them in for a week and a half and the weight is messing up my neck. I love them but the installer went a little overboard... I think she got 70 in. Most I've had is 55 and that seems to be my happy spot. Okay, I have a couple hours. Here goes.

Finally caught up on S4 of Vox Machina. I love #CriticalRole. I also hate them right now. Damn you all for making me feel feelings. Godsdammit.

Took my first progesterone pill last night; 30 minutes later WHAM- headache. A headache matching the pattern I've been describing to my doctors for the last 3+ decades. Looked up "progesterone headache" and that matches the description as well. Here's my shocked face. 😶 Do better, doctors. FFS.

Our local loons have babies again this year and they're being amazing parents! (Last year they had babies, but neither made it; the year before the mama sat in the nest forever then gave up; the year before THAT was the first year the nest was out.) You can see the 2nd baby on the parent's back.

Will it be free beer day at @mbcbrews.bsky.social today?

Yes, I stayed up and watched the ENTIRETY of last night's #CriticalRole episode. I had a crappy day at work and couldn't sleep. That being said... Two things keep circling in my head. Spoiler alert for the following comments! If you keep reading and you get spoiled, it's your own damn fault.

I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT ON YOUR COMPANY WEBSITE TO APPLY FOR A JOB. IT IS NOT NECESSARY. JUST... DON'T. FAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHK.

I wish it was free beer day at @mbcbrews.bsky.social .

It's kind of sad when one envies the colleagues who have passed because they no longer have to deal with the corporate insanity.

Me watching the insanity at my place of employment right now:

Oh. Oh, no. Martina McBride? ... I'm so disappointed.

I am not a religious person by any means, but if I saw this in person I'd assume the gods are speaking to me directly

Lake pump in, primed, and working. Garden in process of being watered. I am hot, sweaty, and filthy with the "good" kind of dirt. Shower time!

All garden beds are weeded and fertilized. Now I just need to get the lake pump in and working so I can water!

Two garden beds weeded; the second one has literally fallen apart. To be fair 🎶 they were built 15 years ago out of scrap wood, so definitely overdue. Two new metal raised beds purchased. The other two will have to wait until the end of the season as they are currently occupied. #gardeningsky

Random thought of the day: Don't TELL me "Jesus" is the primary driver of your life. SHOW me. Every time I see someone put something religious in their bio, I refuse to engage. Performative BS. One of my dearest friends is a Lutheran pastor who never- not once- preached at me. Do that.

It doesn't look very pretty ATM, but... The new garden enclosure is about 3/4 finished. Waiting for the gate so we can install the last posts. Yeah, it needs to be cleaned out and prepped, but I'm not sure how much of that I'm going to do this year. This is a rebuilding year, LOL! #Gardening

We went for a late evening drive last night. Slightly after 9pm, still enough light to see. Didn't go up to where the Flanders fire is; it's still active and we know better. But on our way up to Merrifield on City Rd 3... We saw a house that had a small fire going on their patio. 😳

In other news, the pontoon has been cleaned, fueled, and is in the water. Boat lift cover is on the lift. Time for a meander around the lake!

More wildfires today. Like... 12 since noon. One got up to 600 acres. People. PLEASE be careful. Red Flag Warnings are not a joke.

TFW you finally get to connect with a random acquaintance that you regularly bump into at random events and you literally spend all night outside and enjoying live music and just TALKING and it was literally the most enjoyable evening you've had in AGES.

And there was a grass fire about 3 miles from our house today. A fairly substantial one. Started right next to the highway. Gee, I wonder what started that? 🤬 People, don't fucking throw your cigarette butts out the car window. Especially during a red flag warning. Idiots.

Here's a random thought: If you add an individual need to preface every story with "I might have told this story before" and you have, to me, at least twice... Find some different stories.

I'm so mentally exhausted from swinging between "I don't care" to "I want to do the best I can" multiple times every day. Sometimes minute by minute. Do better, corporate leadership. I'm fucking worn out.

Mother's Day dinner: Taco Mac and cheese, made from scratch by the youngest. And strawberry milkshakes for dessert! Wrapping up the day with reassembling (and some cleaning of) the camper. My Mother's Day treat to myself will be a long hot soak. ... I don't want to work tomorrow. 😞

BTW, those 15 pays took most of yesterday and today to get done. I hurt EVERYWHERE. But my garden will be AMAZING. It's astounding how much more room is in there now, and I have so many plans.... Plus it was two days of being OUTSIDE. Playing in dirt. (And swearing at rocks. SO. MANY. ROCKS.)

It might not look like much, but the hardest part of the new 32' x 30' garden enclosure is done. 15 of 17 posts are in and are in straight lines. The apple trees will finally be inside a fence! Next will be spray painting the posts, and then we can start putting the panels up and painting those.

Between #CriticalRole (yesterday was Thursday!) and early flights home, I'm running on 2.5 hrs of sleep. Just landed at home base airport and I cannot wait to get home and take a nap.

... I am so confused in the best possible way. #CriticalRole #C4E25

OMG I just finished #CriticalRole #C4E24 and AAAAIIIEEEEEE #ISITTHURSDAYYET

This trip is full of firsts. First time I misbooked myself. First time doing a touch-and-go landing (aborted after a bad gust of wind caused a nasty bounce in our little CRJ900). First time on a flight when someone puked. Let's not do that again, shall we please Madison WI? Thanks.

Nothing like realizing you booked your flight to a training FOR THE WRONG DAY. *facepalm* Had to pay an extra $260 to rebook. And then had to book an extra night at the hotel. Ungh. Dumb.

#mnwild with their first 3-2 series' lead since last advancing to the second round in 2015. The Stars went another game without a 5-on-5 goal. They have now been outscored 14-4 at even strength in the series and 11-3 at five-on-five, with no 5-on-5 goals in 207:53

1/2 I apologize for being such a #DrewWomack fangirl. I sincerely love the man's vocals and songwriting. Got to see him tonight with #Lonestar again. While there is nothing I would love more than his solo/Sons of the Desert catalog, I will take what I can get.

Oh, and that owner was also part of the crew that got caught MAILING DRUGS VIA USPS. Like, seriously people. Sus AF.

I might not be the brightest bulb, but all that seems pretty sus. But that's none of my business.

A local restaurant out by the airport had a kitchen fire this morning, you say? Didn't that same owner have another historic restaurant burn down a couple years ago? And didn't that same owner have an issue worth the fire suppression system at his OTHER restaurant recently? Huh. Interesting.

Also... said supervisor reached out to A DIFFERENT DEPARTMENT HEAD to ask about why our projects were assigned to the previous director. That department head then suggested that perhaps we could use a generic "user" as our project manager. Cont.

So my current supervisor just sent out a document for all of the department heads to complete once a week. A WORD document. Like... Isn't there a better way to do this? Confluence, maybe? A shared spreadsheet? ANYTHING other than a Word document?!? Fercryinoutloud. #workidiocy

Uh, guys? I think it's time to fix the mirror. #HiltonGardenInnDCUSCapital

TL;DR: Our dept. director resigned this morning after less than a month in the position. HER boss was let go on Tuesday. Guess who's the interim? 😳 I found out at 10am this morning that I should attend the "Customer Journey Meeting" in a city 2+ hrs away tomorrow, and things start at 730am.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK! *deep breath* FAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHK!

System issues AGAIN today, supposedly caused by a spike in CPU usage on our SQL servers. Edits are editing and saving but not updating in main modals. Nearly created items (events, certifications, etc) will not display in modals. Kinda hard to train and demo stuff, ya know? 🫪

Coworker: My customer is looking for a way to block ALL spam. Is anything available for this? Me (on the inside): The only way to do that is to not have an email address, you idiot. 🫪

Company leadership: we need to be the soul of the market with an AI first mindset. Training department: great! When do we get Claude on OUR machines so we can stay training it to help us with documentation articles and the knowledge base? Company leadership: oh, it's a budget thing. No AI for you.

Also... I'm still an ep behind in Critical Role S4, so I will not be tuning into the livestream. I am wrapping up S3E117 yet, and in my state of mind I am going to retire to the bathtub. Disassociation engaged.

Another day that ends in tears of frustration and the realization that I am 54 fucking years old with a wide variety of skills and no one is likely to hire me. I'm starting drink #2.

One of our party insta-died tonight (crit attack, 20 damage x 2- we're level 4). I feel bad, and I feel like I should feel worse, but... The player is consistently late every session. (Note: I barely know this person; this group is a smattering of locals who have mostly never met each other.)