Wandering Adventure Party

Daffodils are so cheerful.

#BloomScrolling #Gardening

Humidity is 94%, but the dew point is low, so the air is actually dry. This still looks weird to me.

I tried that rubber/glue stuff, Sugru, and I think it worked!

I break headphones. I literally crack them in the same place every time. I think I just have a bigger-than-average noggin.

A while back I ordered some Sugru, thinking maybe it would help the next time I cracked my band on my headphones.

It turned out that was last night. I noticed a small crack was starting to form.

Sugru says it does not stick to some types of plastic, so I wasn't sure it would work (and it's only been a day, so I'm still not sure it's going to hold). But I tried it anyway, because what did I have to lose?

I think it worked! It's not the most beautiful of patch jobs, but it seems to be holding so far and the flexibility that Sugru maintains after it sets up means the headphone band can still bend slightly.

If you have something like an iPhone cord that is starting to show the wires, Sugru may be what you're looking for. It's not rated for really strong currents, but for a charging cord it looks like it would work great.

A lot of Sugru packages come with bright colors, but I got one that was white, gray, and black (I used the black).

I'm going to be so happy if this has fixed my longstanding problem!!!

Our son had a band concert tonight and he did really well! They played The Avengers, Sodapop (from Kpop Demon Hunters), Wicked, and The Incredibles. At times, I could see him bobbing his head to the music (during the times his section was not playing) and I love it so much that he's enjoying being in the band. It's a great feeling to be a part of something like that, and to feel like you're doing well with it. I hope he will want to stick with it.

@woozle Oh this is a good one, @woozle !

The daffodils are starting to open up and the tulips have broken through. This is the time of year I always think "I wish I had planted bulbs in the Fall." But by Fall that seems like a less enticing prospect and it does not end up happening.

Once the daffodils are fully open I'll see if I can get a decent picture. Right now I've got one with an open "trumpeet" but the surrounding petals aren't all there yet.

@moelassus Okay, that is something I was honestly worried about but told myself my anxiety was over-functioning. We do get a lot of wasps here. We had some that moved into our bird feeder one year. The birds emptied the seed and the wasps moved right in.

I should really work on getting over my fear of wasps. It's not handy for a gardener to be so leery of a creature that assists in pollination and helps with pest control.

I will probably still try this, but my enthusiasm is a little dampened.

I have a friend who does a lot of gardening, and she always makes sure to put in a few toad shelters. I had forgotten about this until I saw a suggestion online to do exactly what she has always done.

If you provide an overturned terra cotta pot with a small "door" knocked out of the rim, and if you put it on dirt (not concrete or on a deck), you may get a toad to take up residence.

You'll want to make sure there is water nearby and that you face the opening to the toad house away from the sun (put the whole thing in the shade, but make extra sure the sun never shines through the "door").

The benefit is you get someone to help with garden pests. Toads are great at eating slugs.

I just need to figure out the best place for my toad shelter. I think maybe on the west side of our house, because the house next door keeps that area from getting direct western sun, our house keeps the area in shadow when the sun is in the east, and we have a spirea bush that would provide general shade and camouflage. Or maybe next to the big pot (the one the daffodil is next to) - I could put one of my small table/plant stands over the toad shelter for more shade and maybe put something in a pot on top of the table. Something that spills over and provides cover...Maybe a strawberry, or just some kind of flower (petunias?).

I'm going to need a water source. I'm thinking something like a birdbath, but without the pedestal.

I am about a decade behind on "new" music. I just recently discovered Genghis Khan by Miike Snow, and Friday I heard a song at a restaurant that turned out to be Broken by lovelytheband.

Genghis Khan is from 2016 and Broken is from 2017.

I think the most recent song I have liked is End of Beginning by Djo, which is from 2022.

I don't stream anything, and I don't enjoy the local radio stations, so I'm not getting exposed to anything current.

@SimonIGroove It's not the first time it has happened with this one, but part of it is our fault too - she always thinks combat will go fast than it does, and I have to think that's because we're dragging our feet (there is a LOT of commentary). It's okay, because we're all having a good time, and it gives us something to look forward to, but it is a little rough to be so wrapped up in the game and realize it's time to go home...

@SimonIGroove Yeah, I have no idea how tough this newly hatched thing is going to be. And we don't have time to escape, so we're definitely going to have to square up against whatever-it-is next week.

My gaming life would be easier if I liked simulators. Most of the folks I hang out with really like playing those. They will hang out togeher making burgers and bussing tables, or running an urgent care, or fixing cars, or operating a grocery store.

I do not have an affinity for those games - maybe I need more fantasy or sci-fi. I go into games to escape, and spending my game time on pretending a work in a fast food restaurant or a grocery store is too much like real life. At least the urgent care game introduced zombies, so that was something.

I'm to the point where I am "hungry" for a new game, but I have no idea what would be a good choice. I've been playing a lot of Raft, and now I'm to the point where I'm reluctant to move further through the story because the POIs get more difficult. I mean, I can do them, but I'm not sure I'm up for the frustration of driving a snowmobile again. Not that I'm ready for Temperance yet. I recently did Tangeroa so Varuna Point is next, I think. With all the underwater stuff. I will eventually do it, but I am not excited.

Last night I went back into 7 Days to Die and did the Navezgane Hospital job. I was happy that I remembered to immediately retreat after triggering the mob on the roof - it's so much easier to tackle them solo when they have to jump down to your level and then cross the skylights to get to you. But I'm to the point in that game where it's feeling a little more like "chores" than enjoyment - turn in a quest, sell some stuff, get a new quest, try to buy books but the trader doesn't have them, craft a bunch of ammo, go do a new quest, repeat. Oh and don't forget to check the dew collectors, the beehive, and the crops that probably need to be harvested and replanted.

Maybe I should build a new base so I have somewhere closer to the jobs I'm being offered. I've done that in the past and I don't love it, but it can make getting through POIs easier.

I feel like I should point out that I mainly like 7 Days to Die for things other than the shooting. I do like some peril in my survival crafting games, but I don't like it to be too big a piece of the mix, if that makes sense.

Anyway - looking for a survival crafting game. I tried Valheim but it did not suit. I like my survival crafting games a little easier to survive. I also don't like games that are too "cute." I would say Planet Crafter was right on the edge of being too cute for me - the animals were almost too much. Aloft was about right, but some of the parkour was a little rough.

So what is out there that is similar to Raft, 7 Days to Die, Planet Crafter, and Aloft?

#Raft #7DaysToDie #SteamGaming #PCGaming

I found another picture that shows a slightly different angle - this one shows all the figurines. It also shows all the minis we have off to the side that we can pull out for combat, as well as the necessary "large cups that probably contain caffeine" that are often spotted at tabletop games.

You can see the shadow that the blond Fighter and the Cleric (with the shield) are standing in - right before this picture was taken, the tentacle-finger monster moved. Before that, we were hidden from him. This picture was taken before the monster's "perspective" had been moved on the map.

We played our Pathfinder 2 game yesterday and it was fun!

I don't usually take pictures, but I did last night. None of them are fantastic, but it kind of shows what our setup looks like.

Our host has a custom-made table - his uncle built it for him. They set a TV into the top of it and covered it in plexiglass. When we play, our host pulls up the map for whatever area we're in and we can move it around as needed. He can also pull up images of the monsters we are fighting so we know what they look like (since we don't always use exactly the right miniature for each monster). AND he can measure distances, set auras and set our perspective (this keeps the map from being 100% visible before we enter a room - until we move, it's in shadow).

Anyway - we are getting closer to the end of this adventure. We are all level 19. I am really hoping we get to level again before the Biggest Bad Guy fight, because we're going to need it.

When we left off two weeks ago, the party was inside the Witchbole, which had appeared locally (Bad Sign). We had worked through disabling a bunch of stuff inside of it, and that really paid off. Our Wizard put a lot of effort into keeping us stealthy and thank GOODNESS that worked.

Anyway, we stopped last time right before getting into what looked to be a tough fight. Once again, I cannot remember what the names of the things we fought were, but I do know that (like most everything we're fighting lately) they were demons. There were two small ones that were the same type, a big one that was different, and then a REALLY big one that was yet another type.

The Wizard made fantastic use of his Quandry spell - the demon never made his save. So that was one enemy out of the fight until we deigned to bring him back.

I tried to have my character cast a Sanctified spell and my attack roll was dismal, so I traded in my Hero Point and rolled it again, and that time I did hit really well. Since the spell was sanctified, it did an extra 15 d6 of damage to the demon, and that helped a lot.

It was a tough fight, and we didn't get out unscathed, but we did eventually triumph. Before moving on to the next room, we determined we were too depleted to take another encounter. We teleported out after making sure we could get back to that exact spot. We updated the queen on what we had seen and done, and she and her advisors were alarmed not only at what had happened, but what had NOT happened. In some ways, they thought it sounded too easy, as if we were being led or driven in a certain path (like sending us into a trap).

We didn't get much more information than that, so we rested up and teleported back in. We decided if it was a trap, we were still going ahead - we don't know what else to do!

We had to take down some kind of curtain or partition that was made of fungus and nastiness, and once we got into the next room it smelled like death (plant and animal). Blarg. And of course, there were more demons waiting for us.

Some of these were the ones that like to put a persistent bleed on you, and then they heal up every time you take more persistent bleed damage. The Wizard again used Quandry and sent that guy to the cornfield until later.

But the Wizard took a big hit! I cast a spell on him that would heal him 15 points every round and told him to stay out of trouble until he felt better.

Then the Champion, the Fighter, and my Cleric began pounding the dickens out of the bad guys. They were weak to Holy damage and Cold Iron, and I have a Holy Cold Iron hammer, so I did a lot of melee fighting. I cast a few spells as well - the Champion (who hardly ever gets hurt) was down about half her HP, so I did a mass heal (all 3 of us were injured) to buy us more time.

We finally beat all the bad guys, the Wizard was recovered, and things were looking up. And then the cocoon we had noticed in the back of the room began showing signs that whatever was in it was getting ready to emerge.

And that was the session! We were already over time so we didn't get to finish! But we did make a knowledge check and that thing looks like our Big Bad, but without color (so maybe some kind of spawn? Hopefully weaker than the real guy...).

That's where we left it.

#Pathfinder2e #TTRPG

@donray Right? I mean, everyone knew about the bathroom bill. And we were all loud about that. I had multiple conversations about it at work, where usually folks are careful about "talking politics." But the drivers license thing caught me totally by surprise.

Here's that ridiculous daffodil. It's squished between the edge of the flower bed and a large pot. And apparently it could not be happier about it.

I guess I'll try to relocate it once again at the end of the growing season. I hate to disturb it when it's collecting energy.

Huh. I would swear I just felt a small earthquake. We used to get them once a month or so when fracking was happening in the region, but we haven't had one for a while. Once the fracking stopped, the earthquakes also stopped.

We do have a small fault line here. Interestingly, it's very close to the Tuttle Creek Dam. Brilliant.

This is why I would not even look at some houses when we were house hunting, btw. Odds are that dam will not fail in my lifetime, but knowing it's there, I cannot live below the dam.

I don't see anything on the USGS yet, so maybe the shaking I felt was something else.

Edit: It WAS an Earthquake! It's on the USGS now. It was in Nebraska. I contributed to citizen science and reported my experience with the quake.

I will admit that I don't pay as much attention to things in the Kansas Statehouse as I do to national politics.

But even if I had been paying more attention, I'm not sure I would have known this before they passed it. They were super secretive about the "we're going to invalidate the driver's license for every trans person in Kansas" law that they just passed. It looks like they knew it would bring a firestorm and they kept it under wraps until they could vote on it. I feel like this caught a lot of us by surprise.

The attempt to force people, by law, to use a particular bathroom, the invalidation of someone's license to drive (and therefore also depriving them of one piece of ID commonly used on I-9 forms when starting new employment), and the deliberate choice to make this license law effective with no grace period are all absolutely heinous.

I'm so angry at the people in my state's legislature. They are so rotten and selfish.

The person who represents my district is someone I've met more than once, and up until recently I was very happy to have her, but I feel like she's too tired to fight the way I would like her to.

A younger person, someone I've followed locally for a while, is going to run for that seat, and I'm going to support him. The reason I noticed him in the first place is that he's doing the things I think need doing, locally. I would like him to be in our statehouse, doing more of that.

Meanwhile, I'm giving to the ACLU in Kansas in the hopes they will help strike this down. It's a ridiculous piece of legislation and I'm furious they did it.

#Kansas

The daffodils are getting ready to bloom already. Even that one that is STILL in the wrong place. Every year I try to dig it up and move it, and every year I end up leaving something viable behind.

I haven't seen the tulips emerge yet, but they are under a bunch of leaves so they could be awake and I just don't know it yet.

I'm curious to see if any of my new native plants from last year made it through the Winter.

It's a LOT colder today - it was almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit last week, and today the high is going to be 35, with "wintry mix."

It looks dry outside right now, but I think it's a little too chilly for me to go out and try to do anything in the yard.

I would like to mix up my composted manure with some other leftover dirt and worm castings, and maybe put some coco coir in there also. I think that would make a reasonable "container garden" mix, with nutrients, structure, and good ability to hold onto water.

That's my goal right now - get that mixed up and put into my containers so I am ready to plant seedlings and sew seeds (for things that don't like to be started indoors).

My houseplants seem to be a LOT thirstier all of a sudden. I haven't noticed the humidity going down significantly, so I'm wondering if they are starting to "wake up" like the outdoor plants. I know my houseplants seem to calm down a lot in the Winter and then get more vibrant during the warmer months, but I don't remember it happening this early in the year.

I have been struggling to give the purple passion vine as much water as it seems to want right now, so I filled one of those watering bulbs and plunked that in. We'll see if that helps.