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Thanks, y'all! <3 And yes, we're planning on feeding them. We'll either have them over or take them all out for dinner once we're settled. I've been itching for an excuse to make a giant selection of empanadas, so maybe that will be part of it. LOL

I am at the new place, at my new desk, and I finally got to set up my desktop computer for the first time in almost two months! Feels so good to be back in a chair in front of my monitors again. We're not actually moved in yet, as my bed and tv and some of my stuff are all still yet to be moved. Official moving day is the 28th but I plan to be moved down here a couple days before that. So I have a busy week ahead of me down here getting the last stuff done (mostly cleaning) to have it ready to fully move in to.

I'll post a pic once my room is fully moved into and somewhat organized. Right now I've been bringing stuff down and sticking it wherever. LOL

Such a wild journey.

Some chillax music for you Christa to unwind. I just ordered the CD.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Such a wild journey.

Some chillax music for you Christa to unwind. I just ordered the CD.

"

Oooh! This is sooo good! Thank you for sharing! Immediately added it to my Spotify faves.

Christa wrote: Oooh! This is sooo good! Thank you fo..."

Glad you liked it. I figured you would like that one.

Moved my bed and the rest of my stuff down here yesterday. Spent my first night in the new place, and I get to live alone for a few days. LOL But I had to roll out of bed and drive the golf cart down to the old place to get my morning coffee. Drank one cup with mom, then made another and brought it home with me.

I read before bed last night!! I think a routine is in sight. I doubt I'll get much done today because I'm so sore from yesterday, but it's nice to be getting settled in here. I have my stuff all over the place so I at least need to get my stuff squared away before Mom's stuff comes down.

Congratulations on the continued progress!

Yay for getting settled and having some time to yourself again. Good luck with the final leg.

Thanks, both of you! <3 I actually finished Seveneves last night! LOL And today some friends brought me a small recliner for my room so I have a comfy place to read besides my bed. Think I'm going to try that out tonight.

Nice. Reading chair.

I have reduced my challenge goal to 20 books. After all the nonsense of the first quarter of the year, I really don't need any pressure on myself. LOL Plus I'll be diving into some topics that will involve research reading but not whole books and that will throw off my totals despite how much I'll be reading.

I just need some easy goals in my life right now.

Hoping everything is still going well, Christa! :)

Nyssa wrote: "Hoping everything is still going well, Christa! :)"

Yes, everything is going well! Wow, it's been over a month since I posted? Yikes!

I've been staying busy, preparing to launch a podcast in about a month or so. And also randomly decided I wanted to play Sims 4. :D (I haven't played since Sims 2.) But I'm still reading every night! Including this past Saturday night when I was drunk. LOL

Podcast - Nice! Let us know when you're going to release it and where.

Sims - I stopped after 3; I spent more time downloading content than actually playing. How is 4?

Drunk reading - That must be interesting! LOL


Glad things are good. :)

I will definitely let you know when the podcast launches! I plan to have it available on most platforms (Spotify, Google, Spreaker, etc, and probably Apple if they don't make it difficult due to my lack of iOS products LOL). I will also have a player thingie available on the website that I'm creating to go with it, so anyone who doesn't use one of the available platforms will be able to listen / download it from there.

I'm having fun with Sims 4! I only have a few packs, and most of those came as freebies on Epic. There's another little bundle of freebies for it coming to Epic tomorrow. I didn't play 3 so I can't compare, but it definitely feels more intuitive than 2 did. I especially love the building options.

Drunk reading was... a waste of time, really. I had to read the same pages again the next day. But still, I did it. I had gone to a (day-late) Cinco de Mayo party Saturday. It started at three and we actually came home before dark (walked, it was right down our street) but between 3 and 8, I drank a bottle of wine and three jello shots. I was amazingly only slightly buzzed when we left, and then proceeded to suddenly be wasted an hour *after* I quit drinking. LOL

Podcast - Sweet! Looking forward to it.

Sims - Sim 2 = Alien babies!LOL, I remember downloading a mod that made it happen anytime a male sim was taken. I liked the look of 3 and being able to play the "original" families from 1 & 2.
I was afraid I'd spend more dollars than sense on 4, so I opted not to continue, especially since I heard grumblings about content early on.
It's very easy to get spoiled with the Sims.
I do hope you enjoy it! :)

I’m also a simmer, mostly building, though. For those interested the base game of The Sims 4 is now free for everyone.

Bianca wrote: "I’m also a simmer, mostly building, though. For those interested the base game of The Sims 4 is now free for everyone."

I love building. And I love the gardening and stuff from Cottage Living. My biggest issue right now is that I want to try a career from Get to Work, but also have a farm, and also have my sim meet someone and start a family (which is hilarious because in real life, I'm the total opposite on most of these things).

Now that I've got a feel for how Sims 4 works I'm going to start a fresh save with a new sim. AND I want to do a modified legacy playthrough with all of the stuff I mentioned above. LOL I say modified because a legacy challenge usually requires one home location from start to finish but I think I want to start on a smaller lot with the standard starting money (because Tiny Homes) and then move to a bigger lot when she's a little older and ready to settle down, and play the legacy from that location.

I'm probably going to use MCCC to make the days longer because right now, it's hard to get everything done when it takes my sim over an hour in game time to take a quick shower. :D Or she wants to wander into town to chat with someone at 7pm and before she gets partway into a decent conversation, it's time to go home and to to sleep.

Only a little over two weeks between updates. I'm approaching something resembling consistency. Yay! LOL

I was halfway through the latest (I think) Dean Koontz novel The House at the End of the World when two library holds came in almost back to back and weeks sooner than expected. So Koontz is on hold (not heartbroken about that, because the old formulaic Koontz was way more enjoyable to read than whatever this is supposed to be). First hold was The Destroyer of Worlds, the sequel to Lovecraft Country. Enjoyed that very much!

The second hold that came in was Small Mercies which I've only just started. I don't usually go for books just because they have a lot of buzz but this one intrigued me so I went for it. Even though I'm not far in, it's grabbed me.

Still playing Sims 4. Tried the whole "settle down and start a family" thing and it went so badly that I started a new save. LOL I'm doing a single parent / science baby modified Legacy instead.

I’m interested in reading Koontz. I enjoyed his short story series Nameless, released in two parts through the Amazon Original Stories Collections.

LOL @ The Sims! In Sims 3, I would get bored after the kids grew up because my Sims were homebodies like me. So all they did was go to work and come home.

Nyssa wrote: "I’m interested in reading Koontz. I enjoyed his short story series Nameless, released in two parts through the Amazon Original Stories Collections.

LOL @ The Sims! In Sims 3, I would get bored aft..."

I do want to read Nameless. I think in this book, he just has too many of his world views he wants to express through it and as a result, the main character is just flat, a bit internally ranty, and mostly unlikeable. Despite her back story (which takes entirely too long to unfold, which I think is part of the problem), I can't connect with her. I just feel like she's only there to act as his mouthpiece.

Most of the packs I have for Sims 4 have interactive careers where you can choose to go to work with them, so that breaks up the monotony. Plus I enjoy gardening and fishing. (Gardening can be lucrative enough that I plan to have a future sim do only that for work.)

One of the things you can do in the Scientist career is invent a cloning machine. I progressed enough that I could upgrade it to clone other sims. But I didn't realize that if you make a clone, they come live with you. (Makes sense in hindsight, where else would they go?) Didn't even notice till I used "Send Home" on him from the science lab and then found him... at home. So we had a temporary roommate. But he got a crush on my main sim during his time in our house, and apparently she felt the same because while I was busy controlling the toddler to work on her movement skills, Mom and the clone had spontaneous WooHoo in the shower. (Did not even know that was possible in a played household, but it is a thing, although apparently very rare.) Fortunately, despite the risky WooHoo there were no surprise babies. I eventually used "Manage Households" to force-move him in with the guy I cloned him from. LOL

I did spend a moment pondering the ethical implications of making a clone and then doing him in the shower. I mean, really. Good grief.

Once my kid becomes a teen, I'll be following her to high school (High School Years) and then college (Discover University). There was a recent EA publisher sale where a bunch of packs were up to half off, which almost never happens so I may have grabbed a few. LOL And once my kid is ready to move out on her own, I'll be switching to her permanently and then marking the original household as "unplayed" so that the game will sort of take it over. My original sim had the child later in life so she'll be ready to retire from her job soon anyway.

Wow! Sims 4 sounds really cool!! But I must resist; I can not financially afford another obsession! LOL

Nyssa wrote: "Wow! Sims 4 sounds really cool!! But I must resist; I can not financially afford another obsession! LOL"

I totally get that. The base game is free, though, if you wanted to check that out, and there are plenty of mods / CC available to fill it out a bit without spending money on packs.

The mods are what got me in trouble w/ Sims 3. I spent more time tweaking my game than playing it.

I'll give it some thought. My iMac is past "end of life" (it stopped getting updates a while ago), so I may wait until I can replace it.

Did you see that tomorrow the Book Nook (and Grunge Revival Grunge CAS) kit is coming out tomorrow. I saw an analysis of the available images and it looks likes lot of library goodies; modular bookshelves, new couches, clutter, lighting. It's a shame that the release in my time zone (CET) is at 7pm; it's such a long wait and I'm going to the cinema with my sister tomorrow evening, so I won't get a chance to play until later at night.

Bianca wrote: "Did you see that tomorrow the Book Nook (and Grunge Revival Grunge CAS) kit is coming out tomorrow. I saw an analysis of the available images and it looks likes lot of library goodies; modular book..."

Yes! I said I wasn't going to buy any more but I really want the Book Nook kit and it's only a few dollars so I think I will be getting it. LOL The child is aging up into a teen shortly (literally today in-game, I scheduled the party and it's going to start a few minutes after I unpause the game after I finish this comment) and I really want to get her into reading and writing. Instead of doing one of the careers, I think this generation is going to be a farmer with a cute cottage and cottages need cozy reading spaces.

Last night I finished reading Small Mercies. Probably one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. Not enjoyable in the conventional sense - there's no relief, scarcely a virtue, not a mote of hope for a happy resolution - but darkly riveting and unrelenting. Lehane pulls no punches. It's brutal and ugly and confrontational and absolutely heartbreaking.

All those negative adjectives add up to a 5-star read for me.

In Sims news... I did get the Book Nook kit and I do like it but I wish they'd put more thought into the swatches for the shelves. There are a few colors of wood with a few colors for the books but not all book colors are available in all wood colors and that really bothers me. If they'd done 3x wood with 5x book colors each for 15 swatches, I'd like it more. They also don't quite match the wood swatches in the Home Decorator pack so it's harder to mix and match shelves with that. But overall I like it a lot, especially for only $5, and I adore the couch. And so does my sim's dog who ignores the dog bed and sleeps on the couch all the time. LOL

The Sims 4 is really bad when it comes to matching wood swatches. I can understand they didn't use the color wheel we had in TS3, I suspect it was a demanding feature. But in TS2 the swatches were often subdivided; you could choose the color of the book case and separately the book color. Or the color of the bed frame and then the sheets, cabinet colors and worktop color/material. I would love it if they bring this back (no chance).

New month, time for an update, I guess. LOL

So I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. It's a contract position but I really like it and I seem to be doing well at it. The pay isn't much but I'm working from home and with this heat and the current price of gas, that's worth A LOT. I only have to work a minimum of 20 hours / wk and I can work whenever I want, but I'm still struggling to arrange my days.

1st of the month is when everyone jumps in to play catchup on all accounts that are behind so I put in some hours today to do my part and now I'm tired. But I might go for another round. But tomorrow I am taking off, no exceptions.

I'm still heavy into the sims but this evening I might play some 7 Days to Die instead, since the current experimental branch just went stable. I don't know yet.

The Steam Summer Sale is on. I'm ignoring it. LOL

That is all. :D

Congratulations on the new job!

Do you mind if I ask what it is?

Nyssa wrote: "Congratulations on the new job!

Do you mind if I ask what it is?"

Thanks! I listen to recorded phone calls to residential service contractors, transcribe them, categorize them and also screen them for any customer service issues, technical issues or examples of exceptional customer service. The company I'm doing it for is a digital marketing company. The residential service contractors hire them to do marketing and track lead sources, hence the recorded phone calls. (Yes, the callers know they're being recorded.) It lets me use my extensive customer service experience without having to actually talk to anyone myself, so it's basically perfect. :D

It only pays $11/hr and they pay monthly, but I'm still doing contract work for my previous employer a few hours per week, and I also have a few tech support customers here in the neighborhood, and things are cheaper here than they were in Nashville so I can definitely make it work. And my alternative was working at WalMart and killing my body being on my feet all day so I'm happy that I found this. I had actually applied on Indeed back in April and never heard anything, and my application list said that like 1000+ people had applied, so I was shocked when they emailed me on June 2nd to see if I was still interested.

There's only a few days delay between the end of the pay period and the payout, so I'll be getting my pay for my June hours via ACH transfer on July 5th. There's also a team Slack that I can use to ask questions or just chat with the other call listeners about some of the wild calls we hear. LOL

Cool.

I’ve been looking for something to supplement my income - remote/work from home where I can set my own hours (primarily nights & weekends).

Nyssa wrote: "Cool.

I’ve been looking for something to supplement my income - remote/work from home where I can set my own hours (primarily nights & weekends)."

I don't know if they're still looking for more people, but the name of the company is RYNO Strategic Solutions.

I'm actually not going a whole month before an update! :D

Finally updated my series post at the beginning of the thread. It was seriously out of date. Haven't updated my cover post yet, need to do that.

Been at the new job for about a month now so I'm pretty well settled in. Got my own accounts assigned at the beginning of the month so I'm working those instead of just helping out where they send me like I was when I started. I'll probably put in some extra hours this week because it's getting closer to the end of the month.

My birthday is coming up on Friday. I'm going out to dinner at my favorite restaurant with some friends the day after. Bought myself a tiara and a t-shirt that says, "It's my birthday, buy me a drink!" LOL I may be getting old but I'm still a princess, dammit.

Congratulation on your upcoming birthday!

Congratulations on the job, and Happy (Upcoming) Birthday!! :D
Enjoy the tiara (and the drinks).

Bianca wrote: "Congratulation on your upcoming birthday!"

Thank you!

Nyssa wrote: "Congratulations on the job, and Happy (Upcoming) Birthday!! :D
Enjoy the tiara (and the drinks)."

Thanks! I have no idea how to do my hair for wearing a tiara so I have some princess training to do this week. LOL

Happy Birthday and glad your new job is working out for you. I love the tiara!!

Spacechik wrote: "Happy Birthday and glad your new job is working out for you. I love the tiara!!"

Thank you! I'll try to remember to have someone take a photo because my first time in a tiara should be remembered. :D

Was going to post an update to start the month but I'm too busy playing Starfield. LOL

Christa wrote: "Was going to post an update to start the month but I'm too busy playing Starfield. LOL"

What? No, no, I'm not doing anything.

{goes back to playing Rocket League.}

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Christa wrote: "Was going to post an update to start the month but I'm too busy playing Starfield. LOL"

What? No, no, I'm not doing anything.

{goes back to playing Rocket League.}"

LOL I'm still reading every night, after I finally turn off Starfield and crawl into bed.

Well, since my last check-in was only to say that I wasn't checking in, guess I should do some updating over here. LOL

Finally got done gorging on Starfield and went back to normalcy. Had to have $3k worth of plumbing work done last month. All new water lines and a new water heater. Because the water heater that was in here was original. 41 years old! But at least that's some major stuff I won't have to worry about again for a long time.

Was supposed to go to a Halloween party tomorrow night but my mother had a falling out with the hostess (not mom's fault) and now we're not going. I'm pretty okay with that though, because the parties over there always end up with some kind of drama. But I spent almost $50 on my costume that I now have no reason to wear. It'll still fit next year, though.

Started hydroponic gardening on my kitchen table. I've got cherry tomatoes and some herbs planted. The tomato plants are coming up nicely, the herbs are still up in the air. I re-seeded some of them and have my fingers crossed.

Bought a microscope to hunt for tardigrades and stuff. It was only like $90 on Amazon and it's really good! Shockingly good for that price.

I haven't started journaling again yet but I did move back into my Chic Sparrow pocket-plus traveler's notebook with a fresh 2023-2024 Moleskine planner and some trackers and a reading journal. Even spent some time logging all the books I've read so far this year because I didn't want to start on a random month but also didn't want to wait till January. :D

I started reading the Freaky Florida Mystery Adventures series (starts with Moth Busters ) and it's very silly but I quite enjoy it. I'm not usually into silly books but this one hits right. LOL Also been reading the Montague & Strong series (starts with Tombyards & Butterflies ), love that one. As if I needed more series...

I'm starting to feel like myself again. Well, whoever I am now, anyway. I feel like I once again have a sense of place. I also cut off all my hair recently. My hair is literally one inch long now. I know because that was the clipper guard size I used on the electric trimmerwhen I cut it. Though I guess it may have grown an eighth of an inch since then.

That is all for now. It's 11pm and I'm tired.

It's great to hear that you're feeling more like yourself!!
Sorry about the Halloween party! I hope you and your mom can enjoy yourselves regardless.

Both of those series sound like fun (not that I need to add to my tbr either..but it is what it is, LOL).

Have I really not updated in nearly two months?? There's been whole ass holidays and everything and it all just wooooshed right on by. LOL

Updated my covers post. Will probably only have one more to add before the New Year is upon us. Also been trying to get together a rough list of books I want to not forget about for 2024. Not a prescriptive list, just a reminder list. So I can look and go, "Oh yeah! I've been meaning to read that one for the past decade!" Cuz we all know how it goes.

Gonna try not to buy many books next year. Lots of KU and Libby and stuff I already own. I mean, I own so many freakin' books I haven't read yet I couldn't possibly read them in the lifetime I have left, but of course, as we all know, they are not fungible things. You can't just read this totally random book instead of THAT ONE that you REALLY want to read! Doesn't work that way. It's fine.

My hair is growing quickly. I'm getting floofy on top. Trying to decide whether to trim it back down to 1" or let it grow. Default is, of course, letting it grow out of sheer laziness. Letting it grow requires me to do nothing.

Oh! Happy Winter Solstice! Longest night of the year, which means we're headed in the right direction after tonight.

Ok, I'm gonna crawl into bed and read now. Bye.

Aaaand it's a wrap! Updated my covers post with my 33rd book of the year. December turned out to be the month with the most books - 6.

Did a breakdown of genres and put it in my last available reserved spot here: /topic/show/...

So, guess I'll see y'all over in the 2024 thread. Happy New Year! Hope it's a better one for all of us. <3

Happy new year! May 2024 be amazing with lots of great reads <3

DoodlePanda wrote: "Happy new year! May 2024 be amazing with lots of great reads <3"

Happy new year! I wish you the same. Good books and good times!💜