The Grouch's Trash Pile [Baldur's Gate 3]

Acesulfame-k tastes awful, why do companies do this. I hope you don't have any kind of aspartame-like reaction to it :(
Sadly experience speaks

 

I wasn’t sure what it was so I googled it and apparently it’s added to reduce the bitterness from other artificial sweeteners, which is a laugh.

My mouth still feels abraded but no headache. Small blessings, but I’ll take it.

The salad I grabbed was a bit too small for a good meal but it was tasty. Probably will have to eat the protein bar I got, later.

 

I ended up feeling ill from that damned protein shake all evening. Ugh. Accruing ever more sensitivities as I get older is really unfun and unfair.

In cheerier news, I got inspired by today's salad, which came in a two-tiered box, to make my own salad because my cute lunchbox is also two-tiered. The result is as cute as if I planned it out that way - salad greens and non-wheat macaroni noodles on the bottom, then cut up apples, cut up cucumber, chickpeas, a sliced hardboiled egg, and a few bits of heart-shaped mozzarella cheese on the top. I put tzatziki dressing in a tiny ziplock bag - I thought I had a small container for things like that, but I seem to have misplaced it and need to get another.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow at lunch, I'm so pleased with it I was slightly envious of future-me!

 

Lunch was good; will post pictures when I’m home so I don’t have to struggle with the phone interface.

I’m pretty pleased with myself, too, because I got through a long, complicated (for the experience level I’m at) assignment and only had to fix a couple of nitpicky non-problems (the assignment wanted VERY particular and inconsistent formatting) when i tested it.

 

Lunch pics live over in the Let's Bring Meals to Work thread!

 

I need to remember that no matter how tired and sick of people I feel, if I need to do groceries on a weekend I need to go in the morning because it's going to be hell in the shops from noon until late evening since it will be packed, and when it's packed Finnish people are passive-aggressive assholes.

I don't get it. Finns are generally pretty polite and respectful, but get them into a busy grocery store and they turn into jerks who will do their damnedest to be Ahead of You to save those precious seconds, all while carefully not looking at you at all. And like, this was damn near everyone there, but the dude who took the cake saw me going to weigh my vegetables and made it a point of scooting ahead of me and then cutting right in front of me to get to the scale first. Time saved? LESS THAN TEN SECONDS. He might have been avoiding my eyes but I'm pretty sure he saw my completely undisguised disgust. Newsflash, dickhead, my cane doesn't actually make me slow at putting a damn vegetable on a scale and pressing a button. If you're in so much of a rush that seconds count, why the fuck are you in a grocery store.

Then when I was in line at the cashier two very expensively dressed people stood way too close to me and kind of stared as I stuck my cane under my arm so I could lift the basket to unload it. Like, what, are you weirded out I can still stand without a cane? Are you preemptively tetchy that a ~cripple~ is going to waste some of your precious seconds by not unloading their basket fast enough for your taste?

It's always the people who look like they could spend in a moment what I make in a month without blinking who give me those cold stares, too.

 

Bunch of people I know are doing the "post a picture from 2009 and one from around now to see how you've aged" meme and I've fallen down a rabbit hole of having some kind of feelings about that with regards to myself. I look at old pictures of myself and there's... nothing. It's like looking at a stranger who just happens to resemble me. A distant relative I've never met.

Of course I'm not going to post any of them, because stranger or not, the idea of people seeing pictures of me pre-transition and associating them with me fills me with horror. No thanks!

 

I also stumbled across folders of old art. Remember when I used to draw? Haha me neither!

:(

 

*giant hugs*

 

J came down with a rotten cold and it looks like I'm coming down with it, too, which is not great, especially since I was already sick with random ick last week. I'm not thrilled about being sick on my birthday, but I'm more annoyed that I'll probably have to give workshop a miss.

 

IN OTHER NEWS I actually managed to stop grinding and puttering around killing hunt marks while I had Larsa with me and advanced the story some. Met the garif (odd), met the viera, rescued Fran's sister - and man am I glad that that ended like it did, after seeing her moving in that freaky jittery horror movie monster way I was wondering if we'd have to kill her. Mist rage just made Fran berserk, why did it turn Mjrn into... that?

Anyway. It was interesting to find out a little more about what Fran's deal is, although, like with a lot of backstory in this, it was not enough. Viera society kind of sucks! It's interesting that Fran's actually kind of a tragic figure - my impression is that she's now doing what she does so the rest of the viera can live in the relative peace and safety of the jungle.

Best part of that was the lore, but a close second was everyone's reactions when Vaan asked Fran just how old she really is. Balthier's face cracked me up, as did Larsa informing Vaan how rude he is and Penelo snapping at him to grow up. XD

Last night I went up that mountain to the temple and got a whole bunch of bad news! Poor precious cinnamon bun Larsa. :(

I cannot figure out what the HELL the story is doing with Vayne, though. I... guess he's a brutal sadist after all and his speechifying in Rabanastre was all an act like I thought...??? I'm also not impressed how it introduced Drace just to fridge her the next cutscene she appeared in because I guess they had to give Gabranth manpain in lieu of doing much in the way of characterization.

 

I might be getting sick, but I made blueberry muffins happen, so that's good.

I also took some zinc earlier and very quickly started feeling better - my runny nose dried up and my throat got less scratchy. idk if it's placebo effect or the zinc actually Doing Something but either way, I'll take it!

 

OK this is a bit early but I'm impatient

Spoiler: hap birf

(i can email you the full size file if you want btw)

 

AHHH?!?!

omg, thank you so much, he's beautiful ; ; I'll message you my email address because I would love to have this full sized!

 

Happy birthday to me, I gave myself... exhaustion! I need to go to bed much earlier, and... idk, how do you deal with another person’s snoring when you can’t wear earplugs? x_x

 

I asked J for a short grocery list for me to take care of, and on that was “dinner - frozen food is fine!”

I AM NOT EATING MICROWAVE DINNER ON MY GOD DAMNED BIRTHDAY.

I know we can’t go out because he’s sick, but there’s a variety of delivery places!!! Why the hell did he even suggest microwave fucking dinner?????

 

[Tantrum redacted]

 

I looked at candy until I calmed down, then finished up and got the rest of my groceries, When I got home I told J that it really hurt my feelings that he suggested microwave meals on my birthday, and he apologized, saying he was so focused on whittling down the grocery list to absolute necessaries (since I only have one free hand) that the whole birthday thing flew out of his head in the moment. Which, okay, but I wish he'd thought to apologize after I sent him a text message saying the above (in a way more calm fashion), instead of just "Makes sense!"

I got various sweets in lieu of cake - I absolutely will not make my own birthday cake because that feels like the saddest goddamn thing to me, so I usually bought a roll cake (like this, they're REALLY good) but the whole wheat allergy thing has ended that for good. Maybe at some point I'll be up to trying to find a bakery that can cater to my assortment of allergies and brace myself for the probable disappointment (why are so many wheat-free things so bad), but today is definitely not that day.

Vaguely miserable whining aside, before all this I stopped by the Flying Tiger in Kamppi (the big bus station/shopping mall in Helsinki), which is much bigger than the one in the shopping center near to me, and found they were having a sale where everything was 2€ or less. I somehow managed to refrain from going totally crazy and limited it to another pair of fingerless gloves, a 15kg grip strength trainer, a kitchen timer to replace the one I broke after dropping it one too many times, a travel sewing kit to keep in my backpack, a manicure set to also keep in my backpack, and a tri-color bento box set (for when I want to divide up my lunches a little more than my bowl one allows).

 

Just saw on Twitter that it's also Betty White's and James Earl Jones's birthdays. That's cheered me up some!

 

I just had a sudden "wait can I call myself officially middle aged or have I had it wrong all this time" and asked google, and got this from Wikipedia:

Hmmm. I don't like to feed into generational fighting bullshit, but that looks a lot like aging baby boomers not wanting to admit they're getting old at work. >_>