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.

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 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.

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

@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...

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.

@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.

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.

I usually don't do much on Saturdays aside from going to our weekly game session (which, to be fair, is hours long so it's a big chunk of the day). But today I needed to run a couple of errands.My new glasses were ready at the optometrist, and I could not get there during the week (they no longer have extended hours on Thursdays, which I really miss). So I did that. I guess these specs are okay. There is always a "getting used to them" period.The other thing I needed to do was go to a consignment sale - the last Friday of the month (and the following Saturday) there is a sale that is held by an assisted living facility. They sell things that their residents want to divest as they move from independent living to more assisted living (in a smaller space).I think I've mentioned this before (and I just remember someone wanted pictures of it and I didn't take any!!). They stage the items in a house, which is a really smart way to do it in my opinion. I went on Friday and found a metal patio chair for what I thought was a very reasonable price, so I bought it but could not take it home at that time. So I went back for it today.The last thing I did was I spent the last of my birthday gift card from my sister. She got me a card from a local nursery/garden store, and I had already been once and spent most of it, but I had a little left so I got some composted manure (which was on sale!). Now I feel ready to mix up some good container soil and I can also put some in my garden beds for the flowers.That's a lot for me on a Saturday. I'm going to kick back for a bit.

@AngelaPreston Kids are the best

My son got his braces put on this past Friday. He was very brave and did not complain at all. It was really hard to watch him go through that. The first day was not that bad, pain-wise, but Saturday and today have been rough. I would say it started kicking in around midday Saturday (at Science Olympiad) but I had remembered to bring painkillers and he got through it. Today he's still got some pain, but it's mainly a "weird" feeling that is bugging him. I am hoping that by tomorrow he'll be nearly back to baseline.He's not a big soup fan, but he's going to try some today. We'll see how that goes. Only about 18 months of this...

I've done some crafty stuff this weekend, which feels nice.I got a lot of knitting done at the Science Olympiad - the campus this year was a lot easier for students to navigate so I wasn't ferrying kids to their rooms. I could stay in one place and do my knitting while keeping an eye on things.I got to the point in my Clapotis scarf where I could drop the first stitch, which is awesome. It's still looking very nice - I like the yarn and colorway a lot. But this yarn suffers from what I see a lot in yarn of this type - every now and then, I run into a spot where it's just two lengths knotted together. Not cool!I have been clipping out the knots and rejoining the yarn with a less visible method. It's fine.I also did some handsewing today. I have a coat that I like a lot and wear pretty much every day, and the lining had gotten torn. My son was chasing me and grabbed the back of my coat, which caused the woven upper part of the lining to come loose from the satiny part of the lining (the woven part is kind of loosely woven, and it just came apart).I sewed further into the woven section and reattached it to the rest of the lining. It looks better than I thought it would and I hope it will hold. If I don't put it through undue stress I think it will be okay.I wish I had taken before and after pictures. It really looked bad, to the point where I was careful about taking my coat off around people. But now you cannot tell it happened.It would have been even better (probably stronger) if I had dug out the sewing machine and done it that way, but I'd been thinking that for weeks and just haven't done it. I decided to get it done now. I have a real problem letting the "perfect" be the enemy of the "good." But I overcame that today, and now my coat is repaired. And I have one more chore crossed off my list!

We are at Science Olympiad today, and I'm so pleased that I learned the correct lesson from last year. Last year, the kids were all told by their coach to bring a sack lunch, but not all of them did, so the parents who were there ordered a bunch of food from a nearby restaurant, which was Cane's. We got chicken strips and a couple of "boxes" of lemonade. But Cane's didn't have plates, they would only give us little cups, and no napkins. Our kids ended up eating on paper towels we liberated from the bathroom. I know. I KNOW! THIS YEAR, I brought a bunch of paper plates (left from Thanksgiving), a bunch of plastic flatware that was individually packaged (our Chinese restaurant always includes them and we rarely use them), a bunch of red solo cups (also from Thanksgiving), and a fresh roll of paper towels. I saved the day. Lunch had indeed not been organized by the coaches. One mom made an executive decision and ordered a bunch of pizzas. And then she realized we were going to have a similar situation as last year (except these bathrooms don't have paper towels).But no! I ran out and grabbed my tote of stuff and it was all fine. Plates for everyone! Flatware if you need it! Paper towels, suitable for wiping your hands and face, or the odd spill. We also brought a bunch of writing utensils and a calculator because they are picky about what kind of calculator you can use in each event, and I don't trust the school to remember what my kid will need for his events. Those have been put to good use, and not just by my kid. I am also keeping a mom who couldn't be here up to date. Her son and mine have been friends since kindergarten, and they have a couple of events together today. I sent her a picture of them in their lab coats and goggles, told her he did get fed, and updated her on how his events have gone. I have been up since 4 a.m. I'm going to be so happy to get home to my bed.

RE: https://flipboard.com/@bbcnews/u.s.-and-canada-0m0p8ifgz/-/a-dmM4svP_TNyiHSydGBc9NQ%3Aa%3A3199692-%2F0Oh my god. It just gets worse and worse. Reports that women may have been buried there?