Iunno, man, maybe like six chickens worth?

Today I learned that Sylvie prefers to receive sound financial advice in her mockingbird songs.

You see, if your initial investment goes into the silver mine rather than the mockingbird or diamond ring, you can then afford all the livestock you could ever rhyme in a lullaby, in addition to their associated pull-carts and other accessories. Additionally, with the presumed returns on that mine, you would then be able to afford a reputable appraiser to prevent being taken in by forgeries in any later diamond-ring related investments, plus, you would also easily be able to replace any “broke” looking glasses, pull-carts, Chevrolets, drilled boards, or spilled flour bags with ease.

Of course, all that is assuming that returns on the mine outweighs your initial buy-in price; however, in the worst case scenario that it’s the mine itself that ends up “broke,” I’d avoid any subsequent investment in discount billygoats, as the discount gives us reason to believe it’s mean. Instead, we should skip straight to the dog named Rover, even in the case that he can’t bark, because his potential as a faithful companion has never been brought into question, and we have every reason to believe he is a good good pupper.

 

(Actually I think she just likes to hear bubbling strings of long words in a baby-talk singsong, even if we left behind the actual melody, lyrics and rhymes two and a half paragraphs ago.)

 

Augh!

I worked on the stuffed doggie for Sylvie today: Yay!

I failed to eat a Real Food and just noticed what’s happening on the news in Congress today: Boo!

Anyway my brain hurts now. But I ordered Chinese, so there will be A Foods.

 

Now is a good time I think to listen to 42 cover versions of Toto’s Africa.

Can’t think of politics when being devoured alive by earworms.

 

Whoops doggies tried to mob the door-dasher.

Sorry ma’am.

(She had v long curvy fingernails. They were lavender.)

(I bless the raaains down in Aaaaaaaaa-fricaaaaaaaa)

 

Crossposting from the Fantasy Homesteading League Thread:

Background: This month I ran out of money early, because 1) Christmas, and 2) fender bender (with a light pole.)

I’ve been pretty sure no one around here grows privet on purpose, but since people keep saying “Privet’s an evergreen!” and I keep going, “Prolly not in Minnesota, bruh,” I decided to hit up the nearest arboretum (about 30 minutes’ drive away) just to make sure. Also I had just gotten my car back from the fender-unbender and I wished to roll around in my newly re-acquired freedom, preferably doing something that didn’t cost too much money.

... In my car. Which was almost out of gas.











For the record: No, I was not supposed to do that. I confirmed this on the intarwubs after I got home.

However, I have yet to be accosted and detained by the copspolice. I can only assume they’re waiting to get the DNA results back from the perfect little blood-drops I left in the snow under their winter roses. (I wish I had thought to take a picture of that. It was very dramatic.)[/QUOTE]

 

Spending New Years with sisters. I made spaghetti and we are waiting for Sylvie to stop being grumpy so we can play a board game that Colin is super jazzed about playing.

Later we will be making chocolate chip cookies and watching Mandi play a horror game.

Yey best new years party!

 

Augh. Randomized distress.

Or, not really randomized. It actually got kicked off by “Oh god what did Trump fucking do now?” and was then compounded by me seeing someone Having Opinions about fictional villains and brainwashing.

Like, OK, I haven’t seen the new movie, but I saw the first two, and it was actually pretty damn clear to me that there was in fact brainwashing going on. That doesn’t make the character in question any less responsible for his actions, it just means it’s possible for abused people to grow up into villainous assholes instead of Innocent Sunshine Babbus Who Can Do No Wrong.

 

OK, that’s said, but my brain still hurts and we’re still going to war. Dammit.

 

Thinking back on things, I’m pretty sure my current silkworm fixation was kicked off by that mermaid dream I had a few months ago. Backreading confirms the timeline fit. I still have bits and chunks of the dream-recounting in the notes folder on my phone.

 

My Brain: Hey! Remember that thing?

Me: No.

Brain: Yeah! That socially awkward thing you did, over ten years ago!

Me: Seriously, I don’t want to do this right now.

Brain: Yeah you do, or you wouldn’t be! Anyway, you should be crushingly embarrassed by that thing now. It was seriously awful. You should have a physical sensation of being compressed about the chest, because of how embarrassed you should be that you said a thing over a decade ago.

Me: I hate you.

Brain: Yeah, feeling’s mutual you awkward fuck! Do us both a favor and never do that again!

Me: Never do what again?

Brain: Anything! Just don’t talk to anyone! It’s not worth adding to the pool of memories that make us cringe! Just stop talking to people, aight?

Me: Yeah fair. Now shut up already.

Brain: No.

 

Argh! Brain doing thing again! (See above.)

 

Did some glazing today! 4 mugs (one with ponies on, three with various shino/persimmon/lipstick-purple combos), one bowl with an experimental goldfish drawing, and most of a tiny cup, with another goldfish experiment.

This month’s first goldfish experiment came out of the kiln today, and I forgot to get a picture of it.

It had some interesting effects, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with it. I’m learning the glazes, though.

Will get some pics of that next time I go in.

 

Aaaaaugh can’t sleep.

This was hardly ever a problem when I was taking that chemical off-switch every night.

Dammit, I even did stuff today that was sort of physical, too. (Glazing bay has no sit-down chairs. Standing until you’re tired of standing is physical, sort of.)

 

me trying to tell my sister how the video game: Get the- the Molotov cockatiel! ... Oooh, that should totally be a thing.

 

Wheee I’m broke. Relatedly, my sister is broke.

See, she just got off a month long health sabbatical thing that her job was legally prohibited from firing her for, but also not required to pay her, either. I loaned her $2000 last month to cover bills, and that had to come out of my inherited IRA which is what I’ve been living on.

Mandi’s back at work now, but she still doesn’t get paid for another 2 weeks, and mortgage is due now. So I have to pull another $2000 out of my IRA, but for some reason this is happening very slowly. And since I’ve had to cover the food and household miscellany so far, I’ve run out early, too. Can’t spend any more, or my car insurance autopay will bounce.

But at least we have food again!

 

So, I feel like I should be more worried about the virus part of the quarantine than I am, but it’s kind of been overshadowed by the presidential popularity tracker on 538.

His approval rating is the highest it’s been since just after he was elected, and I am terrified. Please someone make it stop.

In other news, I’m not broke anymore, so at least there’s that.

 

I’ve been watching Once Upon a Time on and off for the last week or so. I can only take so much before it just gets too damn depressing.

And it shouldn’t be, you know? The entire premise is just so relentlessly fluffy. But the way it keeps treating Twu Wuv as simultaneously imperative and a forgone conclusion just weighs on me.

(I fucking wish I was aro-ace. Maybe that would render watching this show mildly confusing instead of soul-crushing.)

 

Crafted mines all day, with a brief diversion to pick up drugs from the drug store.

Now suddenly my tummy hurts lots and lots.

No idea if correlation is causation.

Owie.

 

(Gray-aro, gray-ace? Personally I don’t find it confusing, just a bit much after a while. The fluff factor begins to grate on me. The show feels like it wants to utilize the acute horror of fairytale tropes in a more realistic setting but also wants the audience to suspend disbelief when it plays them straight. I understand what it’s asking me to do at any particular moment because it telegraphs that pretty clearly, and it’s not asking me to be a part of the love or lust so that’s okay, but the dissonance of it starts to get to me after a bit. I become reluctant to play along. I think I really latched on hard to Mr. Gold’s Tragic Origin Story in particular because it has an emotional core that the show allows to stand on its own. It probably didn’t even occur to them that they’d need to justify that one. I feel like maybe if they treated some of the romantic relationships a little bit more like that, like they don’t need to be fated to prop up their importance because it should be obvious, it might be a little easier to binge even with the big drama and emotional pain.)