[Radost]

September is here! I survived the first week of school and (if only barely) the first run since it got hot and I’m ready to go!

 

I loved the ideas for fantasy/RPG theming this challenge. My choir is doing a star-themed concert (at an observatory! It’s so cool!) and I was imagining a ranger sleeping out under the clear stars in this transitional season where summer turns chill. Plus of course star sticker chart style bookkeeping, which is apparently My Thing, although looking at the ridiculously high numbers I’ve set up this time I may need to revisit the plan soon. 
 

 

Goals this challenge:

50 stars: A! Prize will be a party where I mix fancy drinks and everyone in the house has to say “good job, you met your goals!” or they don’t get a drink. If I have this party within 2 weeks of challenge completion it’s worth one bonus star to the next challenge. 

 

35 stars: B! No prize but the satisfaction of knowing I “passed” my challenge!

 

Hat tip to Mr. Radost for help with some titles. 

Main goals

? Seek and defeat evil

Exercise every week. The expectation is 2/week of run, bike, hike (seek evil), yoga, or strength (defeat evil)

? Regain spells

Meditate 10 mins every week

? Lesser Restoration 

Stretch at bedtime, minimum 3x/week 

? Buff the party!

Music. The expectation is 2h choir + 1/2h  other practice.

? Protect the party’s coffers

Fun money <$75/week

? Side Quests

Home Projects and less-prioritized hobbies (gardening, painting, sewing, decorating, unfucking) 1 hour per week

? Satisfy the Alderman that Evil Has Been Vanquished 

Aka POIDH

 

Bonus

? Action Surge

Additional effort on weekly goals

Spoiler

meditation: 1 session ? / 2-4 sessions ?? / 5+ sessions ???

exercise: 1-2 sessions  ?  / 3+ sessions  ?  ? 

music: 2/.5h ? / total 4h including some personal ?? / total 6h including some personal ???

hobbies/home projects: + ?  for each hour spent on a different task

 

 

 

??  Patrol the Hinterlands

Adventures outside the city or my comfort zone 

? Long Rest

Name one thing that was restorative this week

? Research arcane conspiracies

2h+ period spent on game prep. Gotta get the Final Confrontation ready. How does one banish a god, exactly?
 

One offs

??? Tab Clearing (at least 20) (yes, this is still hanging around)

??? Turn over veggie patch

??? Dig new front flower bed

??? Paint a mini start to finish 

??? If I do Low-Sugar Monday every week (unsweetened coffee and tea)

??  If I do strength training every week

?  Rehome the doll collection or CDs

? Order a cushion for the upstairs chair

? (major) Sewing project completion bonus

? build and stock new upstairs shelves

[Elastigirl]

I love your prize! 

[Radost]

I’m looking forward to it! Last time it was a cake, which was delightful but also meant I had cake alllllll week. A fancy drink seems more instantaneous. 

[Sovalis]

This is fabulous and I am totally here for it!

 

[Whisper]

15 hours ago, Radost said:

50 stars: A! Prize will be a party where I mix fancy drinks and everyone in the house has to say “good job, you met your goals!” or they don’t get a drink. If I have this party within 2 weeks of challenge completion it’s worth one bonus star to the next challenge. 

Need to figure out a way to get my cats to go along with this...

[Radost]

4 hours ago, Sovalis said:

This is fabulous and I am totally here for it!

 

 

4 hours ago, Whisper said:

Need to figure out a way to get my cats to go along with this...

 

 

Maybe tie a sign around their neck? ?

[Heidi]

On 9/8/2024 at 8:34 PM, Radost said:

Prize will be a party where I mix fancy drinks and everyone in the house has to say “good job, you met your goals!” or they don’t get a drink.

I love this.  

I don't have people in my real-world life who celebrate me, and now I know how to change this!

❤️ 

 

Definitely going to start hosting "Good Job!" celebrations amongst some of my favorite acquaintances.

[Artemis Prime]

Here to support another Spider-quester, and on standby with celebratory drinks!

 

[Radost]

West Marches housekeeping post feat. Spider Nebula

 

 

Took on a challenge this week to keep the forest safe while sneaking up on giant spiders by putting the phone (and other screens) away before bed. I’ll track minutes here. Giving myself the added challenge to have early lights out (usually 10:30 on weeknights, 11 weekends), which sadly didn’t prevent post-rehearsal insomnia last night. Fingers crossed for tonight!

phone away/early lights out

S  - / -

M 10/10

T 15/8 / oh look, it wasn’t just post-rehearsal brain, apparently insomnia is a shiny new PMS symptom 

W  12/10

T  15/0

F  30/0 phone away at the same time even though weekend bedtime is 15 minutes later. Needed to finish the tension-release chapter of my novel, though, so read right until lights-out

S 90/ -15 went out for drinks after choir performance and didn’t look at my phone between leaving the concert venue and late bedtime

S 60/0 checked my phone briefly after the concert and then put it away for the night, but I was buzzing pretty hard from performance nerves and didn’t feel up to an early lights out.

 

[Sea-to-sky]

Fellow spider hunter, here to cheer (and also, who cant resist starts. Awesome theme) 

 

[Radost]

Week 1 Roundup

Main goals

Seek and defeat evil: ? 2 swarms of mephits defeated

Regain spells: ? 

Lesser restoration: ?

Buff the party! ??

Protect the party coffers: 

Side Quests: 

Satisfy the Alderman: ?

 

Bonus

Patrol the Hinterlands: 

Long Rest: ? Driving home from the observatory on a foggy night listening to my Folk Horror playlist 10/10 spoopy fall vibes I don’t care if it’s still summer

 

☕️ 1/5

?? 1/5

 

Running total: 7 ?

 

First week of all jobs on schedule, but between my Main Concern Student being away three days and so much choir stuff (rehearsals MTW, concerts FSS) I’m still not feeling settled into routine. 

 

According to my phone I logged 92 flights of stairs’ worth of elevation gain this week, I guess I could have taken on the mountain climbing challenge in the West Marches after all, haha.  I forgot about all the stairs I’d have to climb from the lower parking lot to the top of observatory hill and then to the upper floor of the telescope dome! Speaking of which, pls enjoy this photo of the gibbous moon, made so much more ominous by audience members’ taillights. 

 

 

The observatory is a pretty special place for me. One of the original members of my folk ensemble, her husband is an astronomer who works there, and he convinced them to let us record a CD in the visitors’ centre up there after we got super frustrated recording in churches and theatres and dealing with noise from buses and even riding lawn mowers. Up there, it’s just the planes and the occasional herd of cyclists chattily catching their breath before they defy death on the steep, winding road back down. So I’ve spent a lot of beautiful weekend hours with some of my favourite people, making wonderful music and periodically popping out to enjoy this amazing view. 

 

 

This week’s concerts are actually in the telescope dome - it’s a very cool concert, figuratively and literally as they open the dome and let in the cold night air along with the chill light of the stars. Well, it’s not wide open, there’s a telescope-wide window that stretches up to the crown of the dome, but it’s freaking cool. There’s a model in the visitors’ centre that we used as a green room!

 

 

The repertoire is divided between poetic/philosophical works, sacred works, especially that talk about “the heavens”, and science-themed works, often with an emphasis on historically minimized perspectives. This year we have a setting of a 1780s letter written by one of the first women to get paid for her scientific work and a gorgeous piece about early 20thC “human computers,” women who did calculations to interpret the photo plates taken by men who got to actually use the telescopes, men who measured the difficulty of projects in “girl hours.”

 

Anyway, I haven’t had much time or energy for anything but practice, rehearsal, and performance but I did make time for a workout and a meditative equinox-themed yoga video. Budgeting challenge is off to a bad start for a good reason - my Reaper Bones VI Kickstarter shipping charge was finally ready (Kickstarter wrapped in summer ‘22 ? although this is only about six months later than the projected fulfillment so don’t knock Reaper) which means in a couple weeks I’ll have Stash Above Life Expectancy in the minis department as well as yarn. Too bad I didn’t get it before we entered the dungeon full of giant ants in our Pathfinder game, but there’s still hope that my Honeythorn Lancers will arrive before we finish dealing with the giant bees whose hive backs onto the anthill (they’re at war! And in Mr. Radost’s world, “dungeons are special and levels are magic,” so we basically have to “solve” dungeons in order to progress our characters, and our best guess is that the solution to this one is “end the war.”) We’ve been on hiatus for a few weeks because of my rehearsal schedule and I’m really looking forward to a session this week!

[Laghail]

Astronomy and dnd?? Very here for this. 

[Radost]

33 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Astronomy and dnd?? Very here for this. 

 

I’ve made a pretty freaking awesome life for myself all right. 

[Elastigirl]

That is super cool that you record in an observatory.

[Radost]

3 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

That is super cool that you record in an observatory.

I mean, we recorded in the visitors’ centre, because our recording engineer said the dome where the science happens was so resonant we would get a muddy sound. But it is so cool! 
 

~~~
Special reward for taking the cat on a backyard wander instead of vegging out after work: late late late black raspberries! The main crop was done in early July!

 

[Sea-to-sky]

Lovely photo with the moon. Very atmospheric (in various ways). Observatory is so cool.

 

d&d sounds like its a fun setup. Interesting to hear how other peoples dm’s run them.

[Radost]

Week 2 Roundup

Main goals

Seek and defeat evil: ?? (tracked a brace of Giant Centipedes back to their lair and dispatched them)

Regain spells: ?

Lesser restoration: ?

Buff the party! ?

Protect the party coffers: 

Side Quests: ? 

Satisfy the Alderman: ?

 

Bonus

Patrol the Hinterlands: 

Long Rest: ? spinning and reading Friday evening

Research conspiracies: 

 

☕️ 1.5/5

?? 2/5

 

Running total: 15 ?

 

Okay, it’s only two weeks in, but the run-yoga-meditate sequence seems to be a good one. This week I had no major pain and ran a bit over 6k! I could feel something happening in the fascia or ligaments or something cupping my heel, so I went for a couple loops of the little park rather than a second loop of my usual golf course trail to finish out the Zombies Run! episode I was listening to. Massage booked for Tuesday and keeping up with stretching and foam rolling, so hopefully I can keep running and don’t have to bail on my race in October. I also did a strength workout (including some spider-stabbing) early in the week and a bunch of small sets of mountain climbers for the West Marches campaign. 

 

I forgot to skip sugar in my coffee Monday morning, but in Tiny Habits fashion I celebrated the fact that I remembered mid-morning and kept to the plan in the evening. I think as long as I manage “never two misses in a row” I’ll probably count any partial slips like that as a success. Maybe that’s overly generous, but making success easy helps build the habit and I can push harder as it becomes established. 

 

The Bones minis continue to undermine my budgeting plans, as I had to pay tax/import duties this week, but I have been working really hard to avoid other spending so I think I will be able to protect the coffer next week. I also should hear next week whether I can collect any EI for the weeks in the summer when I had no work. Damn, I wish the school district was just required to pay us twelve months - even if it was at 50% of my school year hours, that would be a huge help. But they don’t even like to pay vacation for all of winter and spring break (we get 3 weeks, and then for the fourth there’s a complicated rigmarole so we’re being paid out for hours we have worked/will work through the year that don’t go directly on our paycheque). We have such trouble with hiring and retaining enough EAs, and I think stuff like this is a significant factor. 

 

Games night tonight, and it’s going to be a busy one. I think we have ten people coming??? Mr. Radost is going to be stressed because we don’t have a super setup for multiple tables here. I always feel like, I managed to have 8-10 people crammed in my old old place with between 1/2 and 2/3 the space, it’ll be fine. But maybe I will make sure the kitchen’s tidy so we can have our snack and tea table out there. I do really miss my last place, which had what you might call a great room with plenty of space for two large tables. It was awesome. But we will make do! Until the gods drop a massive reno’s worth of cash in my lap, anyway. 
 

ETA: nuts, week 4 is the soonest I could be on track for budgeting. Good news is, I’ve spent about $30/week on literally everything but the stupid minis, and it’s reasonable to think I can keep that up. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 9/8/2024 at 8:34 PM, Radost said:

Prize will be a party where I mix fancy drinks and everyone in the house has to say “good job, you met your goals!” or they don’t get a drink. If I have this party within 2 weeks of challenge completion it’s worth one bonus star to the next challenge. 

Omg, I am stealing this idea!!!

 

 

glad you are taking care of your feet! I also really love the photo of the black raspberries!

[Radost]

Week 3 Roundup

Main goals

Seek and defeat evil: ?? Vanquished a small swarm of dire rats and banished a minor demon, then made the rounds of the local tavern job boards looking for next week’s adventures

Regain spells: ?

Lesser restoration: ?

Buff the party! ?

Protect the party coffers: 

Side Quests: ?

Satisfy the Alderman: ?

 

Bonus

Patrol the Hinterlands: 

Long Rest: ? running on a cool, sunny morning

 

Painted mini: ???

 

☕️ 3/5

?? 3/5

 

Running total: 26 ?

 

What a week! Balkan Babes had our first rehearsal after summer break and we’re working on some fun pieces for a show in November that I’d kind of forgotten about. Had a couple of ukulele afternoons to round out Buffing the Party. 

 

Monday, my minis arrived! I backed the Reaper Bones 6 Kickstarter, didn’t get everything but I did pick up the core set and a few of the smaller themed sets. I painted one already (bonus stars!) and it has me fired up to tackle some of the bigger pieces I was so excited about from the Bones 5 KS. 

 

Spoiler

 

The full haul! The Anniversary Dragon and a few others were stuck together for the photo with friction where possible and sticky tack where not, just to check that I had all their pieces. 
 

 

Look at this babe! I got an extra Storm Giant Queen for Sibling B but I am sorely tempted to keep both, haha. I won’t though, I have So Many Minis. 
 

This is one of the minis I was most excited about. There are painted photos of Shimmerscale on Reaper’s social media - no way mine will look as good, but it’s going to be fun to try!

 

 

Spooky set! I am so excited to have the crypt and fountain and the giant skeleton is gonna be FUN. I chose his little buddy as the first mini to paint. 
 

 

 

 

I had a lot of short workdays this week. Somehow didn’t feel like I made the most of them, but I did get in some yoga (including bonus sun salutations for West Marches!) and a dumbbell workout. Had a massage too, I’ve been working with this RMT on the foot I injured in the spring but I haven’t been since early in the summer, so it was good to get in. 
 

Forgot about low-sugar Monday in the morning again, but kept it in the evening and skipped sugar in my morning coffee Tuesday and Wednesday, so. I’m trying. Going to put a reminder in my phone to help. 

 

Today we had our Scion game that used to be Thursday nights, but we rescheduled to Saturday morning because the hours were too late for our remote player in Toronto. That meant I had to fit my run in early - I hit the trail around when I would usually get up on a Saturday. Warmed up with a couple of sun salutations for the West Marches! I don’t do much yoga without a video guide but it felt really good to actually move with my breath. Also feeling really good was the crisp fall air, just cool enough that my breath was misting. It was sunny with just a few wisps of clouds, perfect weather for running and for appreciating the beauty of the world around me. The trees are still clinging to summer, all pretty, sweet greens against the blue of the sky, but pops of brown and red are starting to appear. I snapped some photos of our hawthorn trees for @Sea-to-sky I miss living on a street with hawthorns, in May the swallows would always swoop around them hunting bugs, mayflies maybe. 

 

Spoiler

 

Hawthorn! The leaves are only just starting to turn, later than last year for sure. 
 

 

Everything is SO green because we’ve been having alternating rain and sun. It’s delightful!

 

 

This majestic conifer is at the corner of my street and it’s always lovely on a sunny day. 

 

 

I also had one of those moments that just lift you up, one of my fellow choristers happened to be biking past and greeted me, and it didn’t even happen when I was plodding slowly uphill like I usually seem to be when I cross paths with acquaintances. No, I was sprinting beautifully across the street trying to make a light, so I felt pretty dang cool. 

 

I also wanted to share some drawings I did. I signed up for a spooky card swap and I thought it would be neat to illustrate my own card so I have been dreaming up ghosties.  It would be cool to swap cards with some folks here too, maybe. DM me if you’d like to swap addresses…doesn’t have to be hand made or anything, just seasonal, fall/halloween/whatever!
 

Spoiler

 

The roly-poly is drawn from a critter by my favourite artist but with ghosts instead of mushrooms. I have mixed feelings because I'm normally the person who says, crib from your favourites, if you draw it it’s yours even if you use references (at least if you’re not making money off it) and it turned out exactly as I saw it in my head. But also it turned out so much like the original that Sibling B saw it and said “oh, it looks just like that artist you like!” And I don’t love that. I might try for another design and keep that one just for the sketchbook. 
 

The candle really highlights that I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to texture, but I think it looks nifty anyway. I might try to print them on watercolour paper and add some colour. 

 

 

 

[Sea-to-sky]

5 hours ago, Radost said:

There are painted photos of Shimmerscale on Reaper’s social media - no way mine will look as good, but it’s going to be fun to try!

Oh man, that fairy dragon mini is amazing!

so cool and i love it. I bet it will look fantastic painted

 

love the bugger dragon too. Such a cool figureine. 
 

5 hours ago, Radost said:

appear. I snapped some photos of our hawthorn trees for @Sea-to-sky I

The photos are lovely. The mossy rock formation (with added ferns) is beautiful. I miss living somewhere with big trees. Used to live next to a big wood and i miss being able to go for shaded walks under their branches.

 

 

[Radost]

7 hours ago, Sea-to-sky said:

I bet it will look fantastic painted

I hope I will paint it! I have not yet been brave enough to tackle either of the dragons I got in the previous KS which shipped…three years ago?  But I love them so much!

 

7 hours ago, Sea-to-sky said:

Used to live next to a big wood and i miss being able to go for shaded walks under their branches.

The absolute best! 

 

Also, hey, I had soup for breakfast this morning ?

Spoiler

It’s oatmeal. The best soup. If only other soups stuck together like this I’d make them all the time!

 

[Sea-to-sky]

1 hour ago, Radost said:

It’s oatmeal. The best soup. If only other soups stuck together like this I’d make them all the time

Just for my linguistic clarification, is this the american oatmeal (where its cooked) or the uk oatmeal (where it is museli)

[Radost]

American! So porridge, I guess. 

[Sea-to-sky]

13 hours ago, Radost said:

American! So porridge, I guess

Just checking. Becuase i didnt recognise it. Porridge looks like this here (uk)

(At least before you put fruit and crud on it)

 

[Radost]

Yep, same dish, but mine is made with large-flake oats and cooked a little drier, until pretty much all the liquid is absorbed, so it looks much more textured. Also I always have it with raisins and brown sugar, yum!

 

Yesterday I also remembered a little bit of pumpkin spice paste that’s been hanging around the back of the fridge since last fall. Still good! I will have to make up another batch soon, though, there’s only one or two coffees’ worth remaining.