spritechan | Entries tagged with ben and sean

Today we woke up a little late, and were both frisky right away in the morning so we decided to take advantage of that!

Then we relaxed with coffee before needing to head out to lunch with Steve’s parents and grandpa, who just turned 92. We planned to get to Roseville a little early so we could stop at Half Priced Books. Today was a bust for me, no cheap SK hardcovers, no Murakami I don’t have, no manga that seemed interesting and no humor books that caught my eye. I was feeling flirty with Steve though so I made my trip interesting that way. He ended up finding a DS game he wanted and a manual for a Castlevania game he was missing. Score for Steve! Then we needed to go over to Baker’s Square.

When we first started doing lunches with his grandpa, it was at an Applebee’s, and that sucked. Now we go next door to Baker’s Square, which still sucks, but at least the pie is good. The food itself is bland and mushy. I opted for the in-season peach pecan pie, which is like a cheesecake with peach preserves on it. It was pretty yummy. The conversation was fun this time, everyone appeared to be in good moods and we planned for Steve and maybe me to go up north the weekend of the 19th for four-wheeling. Steve’s parents talked about plans for an RV so they can drive around the country during the cold months. I knit on my second Totoro sock, woo.

Next on our agenda was MilkJam. We had planned to go there since we wouldn’t be far from Minneapolis, but the drive ended up being like 25 minutes anyway. The weather was good and the being with Steve was awesome so I didn’t mind. I parked us a few blocks away, and we were surprised to find that there was like no line... score! We each got waffle cones, me with Cereal Killer and Steve with the mango sticky rice. I loved mine, but also I wanted the mango. I’ll probably get that next time. We walked and ate our cones, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

Finally we headed home. I had thought maybe I’d play ITG, but I was not feeling it at all by the time we got home. Too much sugar for the day, so sleepy and lazy. So I knit on my sock and Steve played his game (which he eventually beat) and we watched The Office. Soon after, Ben started streaming, so we watched him try some Fantastic Beats songs and then some officials. It was a great time. Steph was in the Twitch chat and Dave was chatting with her a bit and maybe I got protective of our Officialz group when she was making comments about officials songs (we all usually communicate via the fb group vs in twitch. I’m working on it, but it’s obvious that Ben is also protective of the four of us (him, Dave, Steve and myself) and our work on Officials. So.

After he finished playing, Steve and I went back to a show and I finally went to bleach my hair so I can dye it lavender for Bethany’s wedding. Steve beat his game and we watched a few more episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. We realized Netflix started us on the last season. I really enjoyed the Dana Carvey episode, and the Kate McKinnon episode even though she was so intense.

We ended the night continuing to watch Seinfeld while I iced my arms. Before that though we talked about the nuances of yoga and did a few postures. I’m super excited for Monday yoga, can’t wait to get back to the stuff I crave.

Last week I was really feeling like I wanted to do something with Steve on Saturday morning. I initially thought Minneapolis Farmer’s market, but we weren’t sure if there’d be time after he got back from garage sale-ing. Then on Thursday or Friday I got the notification that Saturday was the beginning of the East Side PEEP Shawl. PEEP is a thing where 6 of the east side (of the twin cities) shops hold 1 of 6 pieces of a shawl pattern and yarn, and you travel to each shop picking up the pieces. You even get 1/6 of a digital code if you don’t want 6 pieces of paper. Each shop also makes a sample of the shawl, and you can buy that particular color base if that’s the shawl you want to make. I’ve never actually participated, mostly because I’d miss it or wasn’t sure about the final shawl. I thought it was perfect timing for this year though. So instead of farmers market, shawl!

I started in the nearest town, and made a loop. The trip for me is 66 miles, and some people BIKE their route. Crazy!!

I’m so glad I went to my closest shop first, because they cheated and made TWO of the shawls, and their second version didn’t make it onto the picture of samples, and that one was my favorite, so I bought the base color from there. Then I went to Stillwater, which wasn’t that far but took a really long time due to construction, a wedding, and general idiocy of the people in town. Parking was a nightmare but I parallel’d my way in. I did get a great view of the St. Croix river and the weather was gorgeous.

This was cute.

One of the women said she thought my shawl “looks like a StevenBe original.” I told her the pattern was the local yarn shawl but that the yarn did in fact come from StevenBe!

After Stillwater was White Bear Lake. This shop turned out to be near Andy’s old tattoo studio, so parking was easy, though it was Dog Days so still busy, with the added bonus of puppies everywhere. The shop was not a shop I’d ever go to again, with grouchy signs about cell phones (Steve called me while I was in there and I started sweating) and a grouchy old lady running the place.

I talked to Steve while I headed to the next place, an area of Mahtomedi (mah-toe-meed-eye) I’d never been to before and super close to my house. Beautiful backwoods drive. Got lucky with parking. Enjoyed the shop, will go there again. Lots of compliments on the shawl, friendly people, good snack and drink selection (though I didn’t take any, I made a note for the future).

Ben and Sean had been in contact with us about possible hangouts, and after I stopped at home they confirmed they wanted to hang because they were in town for the weekend. I mentioned dragging them to two yarn shops and they were in favor of the detours.

After they picked us up, to Grand ave in St Paul we went! Got my yarn, bantered about the best color on the wall (Steve and I chose the same color - a teal - though I didn’t know his choice prior), and Sean argued the case of a burnt sienna and Ben voted for a navy blue. We determined there was hunger and walked over to Brasa. I’d only been there once before for my grandma’s birthday several years ago but it left a bad taste in my mouth because there are no vegan options and my mom complained about the lack of even vegetarian options (the logo IS a rooster, to be fair). Knowing that I could probably find something to eat as a vegetarian vs vegan, I wasn’t concerned. I chose the one vegetarian sandwich and the group got a bunch of sides in addition. I got the seasonal mango lemonade to drink, and I don’t even like lemonade but this was delicious. I was only able to consume half my sandwich, some plantains and chips, and I was bursting full.

Last yarn stop, 3 Kittens in Mendota. Another cute shop, signed up as interested in a shawl class by an intense old lady who was incredibly interested in a lot about me. She wrote down the name of my shawl and talked to me about the shop expanding. It was another good shop I’d like to take more time in. Sean and I walked around commenting on the yarn before the group headed to our actual destination: Mall of America of course.

For some reason, 5 star raids on the weekends always start later in the afternoon, but during the week they’re ready to go promptly at 8am. So weird. We got to the mall around 3pm, and after everyone went to the bathroom there was a raid ready to go right by us! We were all able to catch crappy Registeel, and then we sat at a table chatting and Pokémon Go-ing for like an hour. I was talking to Bethany and Haley about wedding stuff and to my cousin Morrigan about food stuff (he wants to lose weight but doesn’t want to try hard at all, mostly it was me confirming that NO KETO and giving suggestions). Eventually we got coffee (and Ben went and got Sean some Very Bad Tea because they screwed up her order) and wandered around the mall. We did stop into Air Traffic for awhile and Ben tried some of the juggling bags and we looked at the various silly puzzles. Soon after, I was feeling soooo tired and suggested we get moseying. I wasn’t trying to end hangouts by any means, but I wasn’t wearing the best walking shoes (converse) and my pinky toes were hurting. Steve reminded me that I needed to pick up my bridesmaid dress, and the lady made me try it on. It fits so much better with the strap shortened by like 2 inches and the hem brought up like 6 inches. The Asian lady said she loved the lace on my waist and said it made my curves look good, Steve and Sean approved, and Ben said it “is a very purple dress”. Hahaha.

When we got to the van, Sean mentioned something about wanting shelving from Ikea, and I was like, “well IKEA just so happens to be RIGHT THERE, wanna go??” And after some discussion about whether Ben’s friend/coworker Dustin was still playing in a magic: the gathering tournament, Ikea it was.

We wandered slowly around the living room and bed section, trying like every single couch and bed and chatting. Steve and Ben apparently talked about ITG and friend stuff (like that Ben wants to stream to ONLY US and why he doesn’t like other people, even other friends, to view the stream), and Sean and I talked a lot about housing desires, locations for living, future plans, and of course, The Compound*.

We cut the IKEA trip short when Dustin announced he was ready for dinner, and Ben drove us to Minneapolis to a place called WSK (World Street Kitchen), another place with basically one thing on the menu I could eat and yet sounded amazing (a crispy tofu dish). I was still somehow incredibly full from earlier even though it was like 9pm, but I suspected it was in part due to the fact that Steve ordered me a large coffee and I drank all of it. We met Dustin and Stacy, who were kind of geeky and maybe not the kind of couple Steve and I generally hang out with, but they grew on me over time for the most part. Mostly it was that Stacy made a few lame comments indicating her disdain and boredom while Dustin played in his tournament, and Steve and I are not the kind of people who participate in disparaging each other’s hobbies and interests and don’t like when people in couples do that. Be with someone you can support!!!! Otherwise, though, the conversation was good.

After we ate, it was noted that we were DEFINITELY getting ice cream, and the place to get ice cream was attached to WSK. It’s called MilkJam. And it is top tier ice cream. They have rotating flavors of amazingness, and the line was out the door. Ben said that the line was pretty short, less than 50 people, probably because it had just finished raining. Because we couldn’t each just try one flavor, Steve and I opted for the “flight of 4” which were smaller scoops to sample. You COULD order a scoop of all the flavors (like 12) for $58. We agreed on all the flavors to try, and in order of favorites: Cereal Killer, Mango Sticky Rice, Thai Tea and Uma Thurman. The cereal one surprised me at how good it was. It was a lightly orangey/milk flavored ice cream with crunchy (NOT stale or soggy) fruity pebbles in it, and I was brought back to my childhood so hard. The mango sticky rice was exactly like it sounded but the rice was firm and delicious. The Uma Thurman was a tart passionfruit something, and it was good, but it wasn’t my favorite. Now. The ice cream was suuuper creamy and yet not so rich it would give you a belly ache, and I definitely wanted SO much more immediately. Sean got the “dark” which was a decadent dark chocolate that tasted like the most perfect brownies you’ve ever eaten (again, smooth and creamy and yet not bellyache creating). I can’t believe I’d never been there or heard of it!!

Finally it was time to go, and Ben and Sean dropped us off. We weren’t ready to give up on the day though, so I worked on my current sock (using the Mei/Satsuki from Totoro colorway by Canon Hand Dyes) and he played some more Yakuza Kiwami. He’s made a lot of progress and is definitely getting close to the end. We finally called it around 12:30 and hit the hay.

*The Compound is a gigantic homestead that the four of us invented for our Ideal Housing Needs. It’s small enough that we live in the same area and can hang out all we want, but big enough where we can have our individual privacy and aren’t expected to spend all our time together. The idea is that with four of us, we can afford exactly what we want without breaking the budget, and because we’ve already tested (several times) smaller living together scenarios and they’ve been successes, we think we could actually be viable housemates.

Ben and Sean asked if we wanted to go with them to Mall of America to do some raids and walk around, and that they had Mike in tow as well, and of course we agreed happily. I wanted to spend the day walking around the mall with Steve today anyway! I gave Sean the weaving supplies back, showed her my scarves, and we talked about how amazing the colors ended up working together. We tried to do a legendary raid by ourselves, but we just barely couldn’t do it. If we had one more person it would have been perfect. Oh well! We decided to wait until the mall to try again. It was raining pretty hard, but we must have driven out of the rain cloud when we actually got to the mall.

Since it’s still a weekend, of course the mall was packed. Sooo many people. The good about this is more likelihood of people to do raids with. The bad part is always needing to be distinguished others. Lol. First thing: food. I was quite hungry by the time we got to the mall, and suggested BurgerBurger. It’s like our go-to place now for food at the mall. It’s just so good and meets the requirements for both Steve and myself. Sean got food at Chipotle and brought it back. I ordered an impossible burger with onions and a side of fries. It was so delicious. The fries in particular were amazing. I ate slightly too much, but I didn’t completely overdo it. As a result though I was full for quite awhile after.

We did a ton of walking around, spun lots of stops, dealt with issues of too many items, complained about the trading system, and did two raids. I only was able to catch one Regice, and it’s not very good, but at least I got one. Roselia’s are also more likely to be shiny, and I caught three. Eventually everyone had at least one, yay!

When we decided to leave, I realized I was super tired. Like, the food and the walking and the excitement really tuckered me out! So when Steve and I got home I requested a nap watching GDQ VODs. And it was a gooood nap. I slept so well. After I woke up, Steve suggested we watch some of the runs we missed that we wanted to catch. I suggested the Mario block, and that ended up being really good. It also made me want to run Super Mario World again, and Steve mentioned that Noah wanted to try to learn co-op Mario Bros. 3 together. We ordered a pizza and that was tasty. We also finished the Pokémon Blue/Yellow run.

I noticed that this year, there were a lot of runs that weren’t “official” - for example, the run failed or the rules were violated, and everyone was so gracious about it. Like they’re not taking them as super serious as years past. Which I love. Like, a marathon run is NOT supposed to be a world-record run. It’s cool if it happens, but it’s supposed to be more of an opportunity to talk about and show off all the hard work these runners put in. For example, on the finale, Puwexil forgot to grab a character in Final Fantasy 6, thereby nullifying the 100% run. Or in the race between mitchflower and grandpoobear, if they had different attitudes, the run would have been an awkward disaster instead of a cute display of comraderie and enjoyment. But because they were able to think on their feet and Mitch knew that Poobear didn’t fuck up his game on purpose (twice), they were able to find a way to make the race fun. Like, it’s okay to make mistakes and no one’s gonna hate you for it. It really made this year feel like the best event yet. Plus, the room was packed. A lot of people were there consistently, and the hype in the room was infectious. :D

When it got too late, we came upstairs to fall asleep finishing the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 48 tracks run (which was amazing, by the way. She is really good at Mario Kart). It was such an ideal night.

Seeing as I didn’t get much sleep this weekend, I was due for a ton of sleep for today. This was not my plan, however. I had intended to get up and start making this place look presentable again. I’m not the kind of person who thinks/needs my house to be immaculate, but I do start to get increasingly stressed out as clutter builds on all surfaces and more clothes get dirty and clean ones don’t get put away and everything builds out of control until I can’t find ANYTHING. It doesn’t help that when we have events or go out of town, our stuff doesn’t get dealt with right away and instead gets left on the living room floor for several days, usually in the middle of walking areas because we are trash and not actually real adults.

Did I actually get to cleaning like I wanted? Nope, sure didn’t. I got up around 10, wandered around the house for awhile, scrolled on social media, texted Steve, and basically sat around doing nothing. The cats were being super needy, and I legit kind of just sat around in different spots of the house with a cat or two on my lap at all times. I did cut up a watermelon and cantaloupe and heat up some coffee, but other than starting one load of laundry, I did nothing. I thought maybe listening to something interesting would encourage me to move, but since I had such comfy kitties I ended up just listening to Mindy Kaling’s Why Not Me? While laying on the couch with both cats.

The second Steve got home though, I was motivated to at least do a LITTLE picking up. So we started tidying up the most egregious affronts, like dishes that had no business being all over the place and random papers and whatnot. I have a missing Thinx shipment and he has a wedding invitation that’s missing. So far no luck on either front but the upstairs looks marginally better.

Steve was laying on the bed while I cut up the rest of the melons and put them away, and I curled up on him for long enough that a nap was decided. We laid there for an hour, Steve falling asleep shockingly fast for a nap. I fell asleep for a little bit, but not super long. Mostly I watched Hearthstone.

At 7 was plans to meet my dad, Tammy and Jack for dinner at Catrina’s. I didn’t see that they were running late, so we got there a bit early and played Pokémon Go and chatted. Dinner itself was good, I mixed it up and got a quesadilla. Yum. It’s always nice to spend time with them, and I wish I had remembered to remind Jack to hang out. I did notice that he was wearing the Hylian shield necklace I gave him for Christmas or something. He was probably wearing it at the grad party too. It’s a nice necklace!

One we got home, I knitted for a bit and Steve worked on finishing up Moss, a really neat looking VR game that is also played with a controller (as opposed to super active). Then Ben and Sean called us to talk about plans for Universal in August. It appears that they will be there for about a week and a half, will take our luggage down using Southwest (while we fly crazy cheap with nothing with us on Spirit), will provide hotel accommodations for us, and help us have the most fun while we’re there. So we’re apparently just responsible for food, flight and tickets??? Insane. That cuts so much money off our costs. I think we're planning on being there for 5 days, with two of those being flight days and three days dedicated to the two Universal parks. Neither of us have been there and are super looking forward to it.

Sunday was a lazy day, but I really wanted breakfast at Bloom again, and so off Sean and I went.

I was NOT disappointed. I mean, I was a LITTLE disappointed because by the time we got there, the vegan pop tarts were gone, but I ended up ordering a crapton of other things instead.

I ordered a really good sticky breakfast and jasmine tea (above picture), and crispy hash cakes that made me want to die, they were so good. I ordered Steve biscuits and gravy, and he said they were the best he’d ever eaten. That place is a winner, no doubt about it.

Before and after, Sean and I walked around playing Pokémon Go. We did a Marshtomp raid, and that was really cool.

After we got back, the boys were watching Dmac play ITG, trying to qualify for a tournament. I spent the afternoon weaving, and Sean joined me doing her own. I thought maybe I was weaving too loosely and Sean was weaving too tightly. Mine had gaps in the warp and hers was bubbling. But we just kept at it! I also helped her re-wind some yarn to work well in her project.

Before we were ready, it was time to go. Back in the car, got my knitting out, and more Name of the Wind.

We woke up and Sean wanted to go to a farmers market. I can’t remember which market she wanted to go to and which Ben wanted to go to. Whoever wanted which one, we ended up at the smaller market. I got really excited about this bakery stand, and ended up hating the caramel roll I got, so Steve graciously ate it for me. I bought some mustard greens with flowers (my fave) and some strawberries. Then we were all hungry, and Ben and Sean brought us to this AMAZING bakery called Bloom, where they had tons of vegan and gluten free pastries, as well as delicious pop tarts and tea. Since I couldn’t order everything I wanted, and we were on a time crunch, I decided I am going to go there again tomorrow. For today though, I got a sweet vegan pop tart as well as a savory hummus “pop tart” that ended up being more like a pastry sandwich but tasted AMAZING. it was all super delicious.

We got to the yarn shop right at 11, and the boys left. The weaving class was... interesting. I was cranky and belligerent most of the time, because the lady would not. Stop. Talking. We’d get started in one thing and she’d interrupt us every 4 minutes. She redirected the two other ladies multiple times to pay attention and not try to do the things at the same time she was doing them, even though I’m sure some people learn best by imitating while they learn. She seemed VERY concerned that people might miss something and *gasp* ask for an instruction to be repeated. There were only four of us. I was super irritable because the boys kept texting asking for updates, and I felt like a child who couldn’t use her phone even though it was important for them to know when to pick us up. We had barely gotten started on any ACTUAL weaving after the 4 hours were up! It was madness. So I was kind of cranky when we left, because it felt like holding in a sneeze.

I worked through my annoyance though because we were going mini golfing afterward and I knew that would be fun and we’d have time to weave in the evening.

Mini golf WAS fun, we did the course we don’t usually do, and Steve and I tied for second place at the end. We all did terribly except for Ben of course. I got an RNG (lucky) hole in one, much flirting was had, and it was just a good time.

In the evening, the boys played ITG and VR and I worked on weaving. Sean took a nap and then weaved some. DMac and Mike came over at some point and Dmac cutely asked for relationship advice, and it was funny to hear Ben give relationship advice when he’s had one girlfriend his whole life, that he started dating when he was like actually 12. But I appreciated that Dmac feels safe enough with us to be vulnerable like that.

For dinner it was Cafe Hollander again, and this time I ordered something better than the burger, and the uneven table made several people spill their drinks. Dmac spilled his into his lap and got pretty grumpy about it for awhile. We got pretty into the women’s heptathalon? Some college thing that was mostly women doing various running challenges, and we talked about how we’re all so old now compared to people in sports and how weird it is to follow basically teenagers in professional arenas.

After dinner we chatted for awhile but I was BEAT. SO tired. To couch pod!

Last day of school. I was very late as usual. Brian asked me to either cover for him for something, or test Vincente. I opted for testing Vincente, which worked out best for everyone because Vincente loves me so much and would do anything for me. Testing reveals he does not have a learning disability. He is very smart, too. He was very good for testing, trying his best.

We went to the auditorium and had awards, which were adorable and fun. Then we had field day, which was also very fun. The kids did so many cute activities, and Malik only got mad when the girls won tug of war and he thought I helped them (for the record, I didn’t, I just told them I was going to). He got over that much faster than expected and we had such a fun time. We did kickball, three legged race, water balloon games, and of course the tug of war. As always, pics are clickable for higher quality.

I spent the rest of the day fielding Malik and Vincente and saying goodbye. Malik took my leaving well and said I could find him at the community center this summer, and Vincente kept saying I wasn’t leaving. I found my desk graffiti’d later in the day, which I 99% suspect was Vincente, that said “Leah is the best teacher”. He gave me like 5 hugs, and Malik let me squeeze his shoulder affectionately when I said goodbye. It was very bittersweet.

After all that emotion I had to race home and pack for Madison! That’s right, my day wasn’t close to over.

I downloaded Name of the Wind, our next audiobook adventure. Steve smartly suggested it after we finished game of thrones. If you haven’t read it, you HAVE to read Name of the Wind. It’s slightly slow as the setup happens, but that’s only for the first 3 chapters. Then it takes off, and it takes off fast. I’d say in every session I have teared up from how intense and powerful the book is. It’s amazing, one of the best of all time, Patrick Rothfuss is a ridiculously talented author. I should also clarify that I’ve read his books several times.

We arrived at Ben and Sean’s in time for a late dinner at Cafe Hollander, which Steve and I picked after they told us we are “honorary Madisonites” and are also now residents of their house because we stayed there when they were gone and fed the cats and watered the plants. So honored. It was chillier than we anticipated but we sat outside anyway. I ordered a veggie burger with what they called a garlic aioli but was actually a bad mayonnaise and did not hold a candle to French Meadow’s real aioli.

After dinner we walked around a little playing Pokémon go, and then it was time to head back to the house and go to sleep.

Oh man you guys, one more week of school left... two more teaching days, two days of retreats, and a field day. It’s all happeningggg!! I’m of course suffocating on all the work I need to do, and I spent my afternoon at Nokomis freaking out, doing testing, typing things up, and generally panicking.

My old co-teacher Jenny reminded me that she was having her annual end-of-the-year get-together at her place, and encouraged me to come. I felt like I should, partly because I haven't seen Jenny in so long outside of work and I know she's gonna miss me, and also partly because I'm not gonna be here next year so I really should get my face time in and not look like I've completely abandoned everyone. I invited Steve along, because he's come before so he knows that it's not demanding, just probably pretty boring for him listening to us talk about teacher stuff the whole time.

I came home and I was so tired and exhausted from not getting enough sleep the night before, so I laid down and snuggled with Nero and napped intermittently while Steve played a game on VR called something like "The American Dream," which is an Australian-made game that parodies the obsession America has with guns, set in 1950's style. You use guns for everything - cooking, watering the garden, pressing buttons, changing diapers, etc. It's like kinda funny but sooo embarrassing. It's dripping with disdain and is very cringey when you think about it, but it was entertaining.

At around 4:30 we headed out to Jenny's. Kristin, Allison and her husband, Denae, Todd, and Jenny's husband Toby were there when we arrived. I made sure that Steve set up our spots NOT by Denae, and Jenny sat on my other side, thank god. We spent most of the time talking about work, as usual. The conversation meandered around, and was pretty relaxing in general. People asked questions of me a lot more than I expected, and it was weird having so much attention on me about like, my knitting and tutoring and stuff. Jenny's so cute and I know she's interested in my life because we worked together all year last year. Later Todd left and Andy showed up. We ended up staying until past 7, and right when we were leaving, Sean called me to ask about yarn for the weaving class next week. She ended up facetiming me, and I had just pulled out from Jenny's, so we had to pull over and swap spots. We talked about the suggestions for the class and I ended up picking a yarn that looked kind of rainbow-y and I told Sean I trusted her judgment for the solid color, and she didn't disappoint. I cannot WAIT for the weaving class, I am so very excited to learn how to weave with a loom!!

On the way home, Steve and I went back and forth about what to eat, realizing we were both so hungry. I was willing to get food from somewhere just because we were so hungry, and I was trying really hard to think of places we could eat without overdoing it, but Steve said something about hummus and crackers, and I remembered that there were a couple of Perfect Bars in the fridge, and voila! A meal. Hummus and crackers were procured from the store, a quick dinner was had, and a cuddle with some Hearthstone rounds out the day.

Saturday found us waking up a little later than we’d planned on, but not too much later. I was really excited to eat breakfast outside and enjoy the weather. It’s been in the mid-80’s for at least a week, and I thought it would be a really good start to our weekend. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. It was gray, cloudy and chilly. Stubbornly I still wanted to go, as 59 degrees wasn’t SO bad and it didn’t seem super windy. I just dressed a bit warmer than I wanted to, and Steve still thought he should wear shorts and a T-shirt.

The plan was to eat breakfast at Birchwood Cafe early enough to beat the insane rush that happens somewhere in the mid morning. Birchwood Cafe is this amazing brunch place that is a little more expensive than you generally want to spend on a given early-in-the-day meal, but it’s priced the way it is for good reason. They work very hard to ethically and organically source all of their ingredients, and they make really good food, all from scratch. Ever since the ONE time we’d eaten there in the past, I was craving the savory waffle (sans bacon). So that’s what I ordered, with a side of potatoes (they season their potatoes with mustard seed and olive oil... sooo gooood. I really should start doing that. Lol. I know it’s not hard because I’ve done it several times following Blue Apron recipes). I also ordered a coffee. Steve ordered pancakes and we split the two meals.

We sat outside (again, stubbornly), but it was definitely not ideal. With my hood up I was actually pretty decent, but Steve got colder the longer we sat outside. The food was really good, per usual, though the waffle was crispier than I remembered, a little overcooked. While we ate, we watched more and more people show up, to the point where eventually the line was packed in and out the door. We did beat the rush, even on a crappy day. Sweet.

The reason we found Birchwood Cafe in the first place was a year ago when Steve really wanted to go to a new game store opening up called “Heroic Games.” When we went there, there wasn’t much to see, and it’s a really small shop. Since then, Steve has seen them pop up as a happening place, and he also sees the cool games they get in. SO, he wanted to check out the place again! I also was interested in checking out the yarn store where I bought most of my yarn from when I went to Yarnover, Stevenbe. It sounded really cool and it was also in Minneapolis, where we were. After checking the map, we were pleased to discover that the game store was actually on the way, and basically on the same street, as the yarn store.

The game store had more things than last time, and Steve did look up the prices for comparison on a couple of games, but surmised that the cool things he gets in and posts online must sell right away, so the remaining stock gets pretty stale. It was still a cute little store (I mean LITTLE, like, 10 people could comfortable fit in there if you didn’t expect more than 3 people at a time to be looking at things) and a cute thing to do with Steve. Soon after, we headed down the road to Stevenbe Yarns.

You guys. This yarn store is insane. First of all, when you walk up to it, it’s got this huge sign. And then there are like 4 different doors that lead into this place, but they want you to use one with a big gate. The doors are metal, like a warehouse. When you walk in, you’re immediately hit with a strong smell of wool. You find yourself in a foyer with crappy yarns on extreme clearance, and branded coffee and trinkets for the store. That opens up into this massive show room filled with bright yarns of so many varieties. They have kits everywhere and samples of items knit up with the yarns. It’s really neat. While we were perusing, I found myself a couple of long circular needles. I’ve been interesting in experimenting with knitting armwarmers and socks on circulars to reduce the stitch sizes when changing needles when using DPNs (double-pointed needles). I’ve increasingly seen more people do this. I bought some really short circular needles to try for socks, but I wanted to also try long circs for gloves. The shop owner informed me that there was plenty more yarn upstairs. HOW. HOWWWW.

There are about 10 steps that lead up to a landing, with “geek-specific” themed yarns and samples there. I don’t watch Dr. Who, but I was particularly impressed by this shawl and would definitely knit it if I knew someone in my life who loved the show and would wear a shawl.

10 more steps and you’re on the second floor. MOAR YARN. Not only moar yarn, but there was another big room, a side room, and a hallway filled with yarns. But wait! Another discount yarn ROOM. Holy crap. The upstairs had their “fiber” area, with unspun wool of various types, spinning wheels, carding machines and weaving looms. It was all very neat.

Once heading back downstairs, I hemmed and hawed for quite awhile around these gorgeous hand-dyes (who am I kidding? I will always want the stripey hand dyes) before finally settling on a skein that was beautiful and was under $30 (the needles I was buying cost over $30 together already)... my second choice of yarn was $61 and I felt too guilty spending $100 at the yarn store when I have so much yarn at home that I DO wanna knit.

After the yarn store, we headed home. The weather was still lame, but it wasn’t threatening rain or anything. There was a Pokémon Go event from 1pm-4pm for Charmander, and the legendary Pokémon Ho-oh also is going to be in 5-star raids starting today. Steve invited Nick to come Pokéhunting with us at the park by our house, and he came over pretty quick. We all walked over to the park and started catching Charmander. Within like 15 minutes, Steve and Nick had each caught like 2 shiny Charmander, and I hadn’t even seen one!! I was throwing a fake fit about it. Lol. While we were at the park, Ben contacted us via FB messenger and invited us to Mall of America (Ben and Sean are in town!) and hot tub + VR in the evening. After some conferring, we agreed the mall would be the best place to go.

Even though it was a Saturday, and a Saturday with a Pokémon event happening, I still found parking quite easily and we met up with Ben and Sean after stopping to catch some Charmander. They were in line at Carlos’ Bakery (from cake boss) and got some really tasty pastries. We didn’t get more than 12 steps before we ran into big Mike! WHAT ARE THE ODDS, seriously. He informed us there was a Latias raid starting in like a minute and we should go there. I had to wander away from the group to get the right GPS location to participate in the raid, but eventually we all got in and got to try to catch her. Unfortunately, none of us were successful.*

A lot more catching of Charmander was had over the next 2 hours, including lots of shiny’s, and Ben teased me about how much I whined about not getting any good shiny’s and I ended up with a pretty good one. Sean got overly excited about Raltz more than once, to the mock indignance of Ben. Much hilarity ensued as we circled the Mall. We got to participate in TWO Ho-oh raids, though I had to do a lot of wandering with the first one (again, GPS) and we all got yelled at by security because there were SO MANY people there playing Pokémon Go that it was clogging up walkways (like, no less than 100 people). On my VERY LAST throw on the first Ho-Oh raid I got him. Nick didn’t end up with any legendaries, Ben’s phone died during the first raid but it miraculously saved his spot when he plugged in Mike’s to-go charger and booted it back up, and Steve and Sean both got one. On the second raid, Sean got a shiny Ho-oh and EVERYONE was mad jealous. So lucky!! She was very happy and it was cute.

Soon after we had to head out because I had Cafetalk lessons starting at 6:30. We got BurgerBurger to go (the sandwich I ordered was requested no bacon of course, and while I got the veggie patty it had a crapton of bacon on it, which I discovered during my first huge bite). Haley was at our house doing laundry, and spent the next two hours pissing Steve off and making Nick uncomfortable with her questions. She’s been obsessed lately about the fact that women have hair on their buttcheeks and would not shut up about it. And other inappropriate topics. She left before I was finished with my second lesson.

Did my lessons and then it was 9. Nick headed home, and Steve and I went over to Ben’s parents’ house to try out BeatSaber VR. It was SO. FUN. Look it up if you haven’t seen it yet Exactly as I imagined it, though I kept accidentally pressing the menu button when songs got intense. It lines up really well and does sense you better than PlayStation VR, because it has two sensors for you instead of just the one and can track your movement better. The only downside is that it was on a computer and only the person playing could hear the music, so the room was quiet save for the swishing noises as you swiped, and the heavy breathing of exertion XD Hard mode is really fun, and I was unable to pass any expert songs (which I’m happy about - love a challenge). We all took turns playing to our hearts’ content. When I wasn’t playing, I was knitting on Mom’s gloves and fighting with one of the kittens to stop trying to eat my yarn and needles.

Sean went to bed around midnight and Mike left, and then Ben’s friends Kuh-San and Amanda (they’re married) came over. Kuh-San is one of Ben’s longtime friends, having lived just down the street from each other, and he makes a daily appearance in Ben’s “post-college pre-Madison” book, Corrupted Complaints. He and his wife were pleasant and nice. More BeatSaber, more conversation, and then hot tub. We spent about a half hour in the hot tub. Steve had been asking me what I liked about hot tubs, and I was having trouble articulating other than it’s warm and comfy and fun. Lol. Once we got in there, I realized it was because if you’re in a group, you just take the talking you were JUST doing, and add in fun warm water and artistically good sensory distraction, like putting your hands and feet in the jets, floating back and forth, and experimenting with how much of your skin to expose to the chilly air.

During that time we talked a lot about Disney World. Ben, Sean, and Ben’s parents JUST got back from a trip there, are going to go again in August, and planned for us to join them there in December (plans right now are the 1st-9th). I’ve been to DW once, for my little brother when he was 6 and I was 19 (so over 10 years ago) and I didn’t remember it being that fun. How can it be so fun for a group of adults that they go three times in a year?? I don’t know how you can want to go that much. Ben basically ended up saying that it’s just an excuse to spend a lot of time with the people you care about, in an easygoing place with a lot of access to comfort and luxury and unique foods and people. And of course, the Disney theme and fireworks. So I guess it’s something about not thinking you’re going to an amusement park, because it will never compare to Cedar Point or Six Flags or King’s Island, but more like you’re going for the ~experience~.

Soon after there was toweling off and Kuh-San and Amanda left, and then Ben laid on the floor of his living room and Steve and I sat on the couches and we talked about journaling, jobs, and other nothing topics that felt really good to just be hanging out. I really like Ben a lot, and he has a lot of thoughts/rants/etc. It’s really funny when he and Steve are talking, because Ben has such an analytical way of thinking (“process” thinking where he wants everything to be as efficient as possible and even though he doesn’t process super quickly, you can bet he will find a good solution) and Steve has such an analogical way of thinking. They’re both hilarious when talking, so it’s always enjoyable to be around when they’re having a conversation.

Oh, and I took a cute selfie.

Finally we got too tired to continue (it was well past 2am by this point), and Steve and I stopped at Taco Bell, not having gotten dinner (I just ordered a bean burrito), ate quickly and collapsed into bed, serenaded by Kripp playing Hearthstone.

Perfect end to a perfect day.

*Steve informed me, post-entry, that he lied to everyone and he DID catch Latias, but felt guilty that he was the only one and thus pretended he didn’t. HAAAHAHA omg he’s the best.

Sunday found us getting up at around 8:40, packing up, and heading to Sow's Ear for breakfast. This time I got the other soup, and worked on my knitting when I was finished writing for Saturday's journal. I had my iPad and got Steve all set up for his... and then the iPad died. Whoops.

Sidenote, I've been using my work laptops and iPads for 4 years (I think my laptop died my first year teaching), and now that's going away! I don't have any technology for myself... we have a desktop computer but it's inconvenient to my daily needs. Steve suggested that maybe I just get an iPad and keyboard, like how my current school laptop is set up, instead of a whole new laptop. It makes a lot of sense and suits my needs just fine. I think that's a great idea if we can find one that's more affordable than a laptop. I prefer Mac far more than other brands, just because it syncs with my phone and stuff. So convenient.

We got our entries written and commented on the similiarities and differences, and then we decided to head out after finishing our food to go play mini golf. Initially we thought we'd have to play inside, but turns out, even though the day was gray and dreary, it was warm enough. The ground was soaked, but it didn't rain, so we played outside on the Wisconsin course. I thought that there would be LESS people out because it was Mother's Day, and boy was I wrong. So many families, and parties of 5+ people saturated the course. Steve and I ended up bouncing around to open holes, and we both played TERRIBLY. A good reason was, again, the course was really wet, but also it was our first time out on the course all year, and some obstacles still just weren't fully prepared yet. I somehow ended up with par (which was like 63 or something), and Steve was 3 strokes behind. He did win us a free game at the end though, woo! It was a fun time.

After that we made a pit stop at Ben and Sean's, left them a cute note on their garage floor, and then promptly forgot the bag with our co-op buys in it. AUGH!! Sadness. It'll keep until we're back there in 3 weeks.

We left just a bit too late to stop at the vegan place again, whoops! Uh, and we also got so into Game of Thrones and knitting that we completely forgot about stopping at game stores too. Haha, we totally failed at remembering things in favor of the cute things we were already doing.

When we got home, we had about an hour of the book left, so we pulled out some lawn chairs to sit in while we listened and I finished the cowl I'd started just earlier in the day!

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT KNITCIRCUS MAKING THE BEST GRADIENTS?!?!

Phew, about 3 years in the listening, we finally are all caught up on the Game of Thrones series. We read most of the first book but we listened to all of the rest, 32-45 hours apiece. They were so good! So many things left unfinished! Steve read to me from the Game of Thrones wiki while I plowed through a couple other random projects - I couldn't remember where I was in the Pi shawl I'd started, and even though it's not nearly as big as I'd wanted it, I just bound it off so it's a giant doily lol. Then I used the cheap extra super bulky yarn I got from Wish to arm-knit with. It's OKAYYY but not great. I also refused to knit it the way tutorials online say, because it's WRONG. Like, the stitches get twisted if done that way! Instead I just moved it back and forth like you would when doing straight knitting, which was fiddlier and made it take longer. But I'm done! It was nice to just finish up a couple things. I think I'm gonna keep that up right quick - I bound off on my black scarf base and I have one more cowl I need to finish. Oh, and my mom's gloves. That's first!

Steve and I ended up flopping into bed after 11 AGAIN, which I definitely regretted all day today, lawdy. But we definitely got some REALLY good cuddlesleeps.

Breaking this one up by the topics I divided up yesterday!

Garage sales and Pokemon Go
Steve was interested in checking out the Madison garage sale scene, so we meandered about without much luck for awhile, but it turns out that we were just in the wrong area. We turned around after Steve looked up garage sales on Facebook or something (seriously, did you know that was a thing?? Weird) and we had more luck in a DIFFERENT neighborhood. He likes to go to garage sales to look for old games and systems, particularly with the hope that it's an older person (usually a lady who cleaned up after grandkids) or parents after their kids have moved out. I don't like garage sales and haggling makes me nervous, but I don't mind driving around and knitting and playing Pokemon Go, so I have fun too!

Sow's ear breakfast/Pokemon Go/New plague
We couldn't spend TOO much time garage sale-ing because we needed to eat and I had a knitting class scheduled at the Sow's Ear. The Sow's Ear, I've mentioned before, is an amazing Cafe and Knitting shop in Verona, WI. If you're ever near Madison, go there. Not only do they cater to people who love good yarns, they also have amazing drinks and food options. I ordered the grilled cheese on a french baguette and a cup of their summer asparagus soup, plus a hot chocolate with soy because YUM. Then Steve and I walked around a bit getting PokeStops and marveling at how there could be so many damn people on "Main Street," like calm down people GO! AWAY!!!

Knitting class and cute texts
My class started at 1, and Steve and I took bets on how old the other people would be. Steve guessed an average of 39 (with me bringing down the average, and I said 45 and older. There ended up being 5 other women in the class, the youngest of which was 40+. Three of the women were at least in their 60's. Everyone but the youngest was fine, the woman on my right was funny, and the woman on my left was kinda derpy. The youngest of them just had that annoying voice quality (think back to Yarnover and the fuckin' nerd ladies with their pressured speech and nasally voices) and she knit very slowly. But she was nice, and she showed us a stranded (colorwork) double-knitting project that made my colorwork look like a kindergartener's so I should stfu about knitting speed. Though she did make multiple comments about how fast I knit and suggested there had to be crochet videos for learning to crochet with your right hand and I should try to find them.

The stitch I was learning was Brioche, and I'm REALLY glad I learned it in person before trying to learn it via videos or words. It's basically a type of ribbing, but the way instructions talk about them is way more complicated than the act of brioche. It has a very easy and repetitive rhythm, and once you get a couple rows, you can just SEE the stitch and just remember which ones you yarnover on, which you slip, and which you work. It's also really neat because it's technically reversible. I started my practice with a yarn I thought would look good and knit up okay, but I didn't like the black contrasting... it's too bold. I'd want something else I think to finish (though the yarn is Mano del Uraguay and sooo soft).

Steve had gone out to more garage sales during this time, and he actually found some awesome deals. He ended up with a complete NES system in addition to several games - two of them BOXED, which is super rare to find at a garage sale. Usually Steve ends up finding video game boxes on ebay, and NES ones are not easy to come by. He's actually just finishing up getting boxes for all of our SNES games, so it seemed fitting he'd finally found some for the next system he needs to collect for.

He texting me such cute texts about how much he loves me knitting and how taking knitting classes is ideal girl behavior. I missssssed ideal girl stuff. When we first started dating he would point out things I did that were "ideal girl behavior" - things that he didn't necessarily KNOW of, like didn't have a list in his head, but things that definitely count towards comprising the perfect girl. Apparently knitting (/having a passion for a hobby) is one of them. ^_^ All I want is his looooove and support! He's VERY good about supporting my endeavors, love him so much!

I got to talking to the woman next to me about how beautiful her yarn was (from KnitCircus) and she said they have kits specifically for the cowl we were working on at their store, and I HAD to go check it out. It was 3:30, and the store closed at 4. I quick packed up my things, raced out to Steve and explained the situation, and we booked it out.

Omg what happened Knitcircus exploded from a small store to a store filled with yarny treats
Last year Sean and I went to KnitCircus and it was definitely in a different building, this store was MUCH bigger and had so many more options. It was to DIE for. They have the best gradients and rainbows and mixes of colors, and their yarns are already wound for you. They're pretty spendy but SO worth it. I was in yarn heaven.

I found some yarn for the cowl I wanted and we realized we were pretty tired after so much stuff in the day, and we headed back to Castle Seanjamin, put on some Hearthstone, and I cuddled up into Steve's perfect nook and we promptly fell asleep. It was a good nap! We woke up rested and hungry, and I suggested we try Dumpling Haus, a place we've seen on the way to The Great Dane a bunch of times. I was intrigued!!

Dumpling dinner/socially unacceptable food behavior
Steve of course didn't remember that I've talked about this place a bunch of times. It just sounded so good!! When we got there, the place was PACKED. There was ONE small table left and I claimed it, and Steve and I each ordered a set of dumplings (Bao) plus dessert bao (nutella) and Steve ordered pork and greens wontons and chicken fried rice. I also ordered the tofu soup. The bao was perfect and light (I got veggie and it tasted like Spring). My soup was exactly what I was looking for as well. I knit while we waited.

There was a man and his child eating next to us, and I thought they were very normal but Steve did not get good vibes from the dad. He just seemed serious and probably the kind of parent I would be - he didn't freak out or even say anything really when the kid knocked over his pop, just suggested he get more paper towels. He mentioned more than once that he didn't like wasted food, and when they left, the child had left one bao untouched, which I thought was strange. Like, they could have easily taken it along and given it to family (who they were talking about) or saved it for later! I asked Steve if he would eat it if I grabbed it off their plate (I assumed it had meat in it because most of the food there did), and he said he would if I was brave enough to violate the social code of not taking food from strangers' plates. They had been seated less than a foot from our table; we basically ate together! I had no problem snatching the bao off the plate and plopping it in with ours. It turned out to be pork, and Steve ate it happily. I have never understood why it's so frowned upon to take someone else's leftovers, especially if they're completely unsullied. :P

Witness to an accident/co-op/COPS
Full and happy, we decided to go to Willy's Co-op right after dinner instead of the next day, just for time's sake. I really wanted to stock up on their vegan jerky, which is AMAZING and I haven't seen it anywhere else. On the way, we were at a red light at a really weird intersection, and we watched an SUV sideswipe/half T-bone a sedan with two women and a child. The child was in the seat where the SUV hit, but it looked like he had slowed enough and she was turned enough that most of the damage ended up on the tire well and did SOMETHING so the trunk popped open. Steve was driving and observing to make sure the family was fine, so I was completely impotent when the SUV just DROVE! AWAY!!! What the fuck?! Like, the damage to the SUV was at least as significant to the sedan, and he didn't even check to see if they were okay???? WHAT THE FUUUUCK!!! I was so stressed out, I am such an "action" person when it comes to emergencies. My brain works in such a way that it immediaely develops a bulleted list of things that need to be attended to and wants to DO them. As a passenger and also in a situation that I really couldn't be helpful in after a certain point, it was a frustrating situation. The people in the sedan were okay, I think they were just really scared and upset.

Got the jerky, got some coffee, got a water bottle and some treats - vegan gluten free dense soft muffin for me, and vegan banana muffin with peanut butter frosting (literally his perfect dessert)

On the way back to Castle Seanjamin, we passed no less than 6 cops on this 5-miles stretch of road. The first was a cop pulling someone over who was next to Steve. Then we passed one speed trap with an undercover SUV, and then at the next exit there were TWO cops (one undercover charger and a regular cruiser), and THEN we saw TWO SEPARATE people pulled over, within a hundred yards of each other, plus another cop just driving (probably after just having pulled comeone over). It was madness. WHY SO MANY COPS. CALM DOWN.

Dmac/ITG/knitting
When we were on our way back from the co-op, David (Dmac) asked if we wanted to play ITG with him. Of course! Though I also wanted to be KNITTINGGGGG. It was good. We played a bunch of songs from the Fantastic Beats pack, but Steve and I weren't having off-days exactly, more like Ben's machine just feels sooo different from ours now... it's really weird, and we were both late ALL the time, which NEVER happens. I just couldn't find the sweet spot and would insanely overcorrect. Just strange. But we all had fun, talked to Dmac about the popularity of Ultimate Frisbee in Madison and his tryouts for teams, and he ended up getting a really good score on an ITG Rebirth song.

During that time I started my Knitcircus cowl and it's been beautiful so far. After Dmac left we showered quick and hopped into bed!

Oh, and we've also decided to rename from couple complaints because we don't really complain much - we just initially stole Ben's book titles (College complaints, corrupted complaints, cubicle complaints and "Compendium of Complaints" - all of the books). Ben has a really funny way of talking about things, and I never really think of them as *complaints,* more like musings and thoughts. Like he doesn't strike me as a negative person and he's quite funny, but I GUESS he's complaining? It's just not how I personally view complaining. lol. So I think we're going to rename to couple chronicles. Fits better. :)

All in all, it was a busy, but relaxing, and just basically a perfect day. Wow. Love this boy, love this life!

I drink a fair amount of coffee. I consume enough caffeine that I can go a day or two without coffee, and there's enough in my system that I don't get withdrawals immediately. I'm NOT one of those people who says "I'm not human until I've had coffee" or whatever. I simply like the taste, it's part of my routine, and I'm generally more pleasant when I drink it. It does NOT make me feel more awake. But it gives me something to do with my hands. My point is, we always have coffee on hand. Except not today. When we went grocery shopping last weekend, we made the mistake of thinking we had enough coffee to get through the week, and forgot to pick some up at any point DURING said week. So today, we were out. Sadness. Instead, we had some black tea on the couch this morning, and while far more watery and far less coffee-y, it was still quite tasty and cute.

Friday means basketball during foundations, and Todd told me he plans to try to get the kids in the gym for Tuesday and Thursday and play dumb about the "cleaning." I told him to go for it but you all know how my gym battle went all year.

First block started out today much like yesterday, with me taking someone to Reset, only today it was Chaz. Chaz decided to stand on a chair and sing the "Charge!" song like they play at sports games, only instead of the "dun-dun-duns" and "charge," every sound was replaced with the word "Shit." Awesome. So I took him into the other room while I wrote out the write-up, and there's a box for "Perceived Motivation" - options include obtaining peer attention, obtaining adult attention, avoiding peers/adults/activities, etc. I asked him why he did that, and he said, "Because I wanted you to take me to get my iPad." Okay, so I asked if he wanted my attention. He said yes. Lol. Easy peasy. I told him he could have just... ya know... gotten my attention normally. We walked up to reset and after we processed, we got his iPad from Corri (though it wasn't as easy as I'm saying and actually took about 15 minutes after the "Listen to Corri vent" tax) and went back to class.

Kids started their presentations today on their Real Life project. Malik went first, but requested Tealie present for him. He had a super goofy filtered pic of him on his first slide, and he was trying SO HARD to keep a straight face when people giggled at it, saying "What's funny?!" but totally giving himself away. I saw Tealie trying to grade on slips of paper so I texted her from across the room telling her I was grading them right in Schoology. It was funny.

2nd block Vincente requested to work in my room instead of going to his electives, and I try to grant this request occasionally because I know it makes the teachers' lives easier and he usually works for me. He did work for the entire first skinny (40 minutes), and in the second skinny he had stopped working but he stayed quiet. Tre'Kari's dad showed up unexpectedly and we had a super awkward confrontation that resulted in Tre having to go in the hall with him and get yelled at.

Stopped home, saw Steve, had a super difficult time leaving. I cut up our last two mangoes and we ate them while talking about our plans for the evening/weekend, and when we planned on leaving. I reminded Steve to eat the food in the fridge and then headed to Nokomis. I only saw Leon and Jeremy today, as Maddy went out of town and Khilanni was in lesson. Today Olivia and Lynnea read their current story ("Bugs!") and we did the first comprehension page. They did SUPER well today and I didn't even have to argue with them about WHEN we color. The outcome is ALWAYS the same, not sure at this point why they try, though it's gotten to the point where they talk about coloring as they get their folders or word cards, so maybe it's just habit still.

I debated whether to dip out early or wait for Janet, the social worker, who wanted to stop by and see me. Janet works for both Nokomis North AND Nokomis South, and it sounds like she's often got her hands full at North, so we rarely see each other. She did eventually make it in and we talked about a couple things we need to take care of, and THEN I left. On the way home though I did stop at a gym and take it. Naturally.

When I got home I decided to water the garden and my hanging plant quick, and while I was outside Steve came out to meet me. I THOUGHT he was just so excited to see me, but instead he was VERY nervous and did the like, "Remember how much you love me when I tell you what I'm about to tell you..." and I immediately tried to brace myself for him telling me that one of my shirts was ruined, which is a lot bigger deal to me than you'd think. I'm so autistic when it comes to my clothes, I get more devastated than the average person about those things. I was sooo stressed and then Steve pulls out this tangled mess and confesses that he washed one of my latest projects. The glove itself was fine, as it turns out, just the remaining yarn was basically ruined because it half-felted into itself and it's not worth it to try to mess with. Guess what though? That was a mini kit and each glove had its own skein of yarn anyway. No problem! God, it was funny. Steve is so cute.

So Steve had done the laundry (yay!), which meant it was super easy packing up, just making sure I remembered my yarn, needles, and patterns along with the projects I want to be working on this weekend. I brought Mom's gloves I'm working on for Mother's Day, as well as Steve's sock, and of course the materials for the project for tomorrow. I'm sooo into knitting these days. On the 4-hour drive I got the majority of the first glove (take 2) done. It's looking MUCH better this time around. For some reason I just am not that great at chunks of colorwork, especially in the round. My tension gets so wonky and is a terrible show of my actual knitting skill, so my solution is to do the colorwork on the cuffs, but the cat heads I'm duplicate-stitching on.

We had planned to stop at the vegan place we ate at when we were in Wisconsin Dells, but it turns out it wasn't where we thought it was, and by the time we would get to it, it would be too close to closing. I recognized where we were though, and that cute cafe we went to after getting massages was open, and had delicious food. We got the same appetizer as last time (goat cheese, roasted garlic and peppers), and I tried their veggie burger. This cafe is so out of place in such a small town... the food is really good and there's a decent variety of vegetarian items, in this weird-ass diner-style cafe. In the bathroom there was a sign saying that the building and its accompanying plumbing is over 150 years old. The only other thing of note there was that Steve went into a bathroom (single stall) that turned out to be labeled as a women's bathroom, but he couldn't have known that because the door was wide open and the men's bathroom was hidden, so it just seemed like... a one-person bathroom. Which it was. A grumpy looking old lady waited outside for him and then made it her business to notify him that he used the wrong bathroom. Steve, caught unawares, was classic Steve and was like, "Oh, I had no idea! Whoops!" The old lady was not having it though and CLEARLY thought he had violated some prissy code in her head, and I had like a thousand sassy comments plus a fist for her stupid face if she said one more thing to him. Like, has she never had men in her HOUSE, where ALL bathrooms are gender neutral?? Twat.

We left there a little after 8 and had about 45 minutes to go. We listened to Game of Thrones the whole way, as we do. We've got less than 5 hours left of Book 5! OMG!!! We're actually almost caught up with everyone else, which is both exciting (because of course everything is so interesting and it'll be nice to have all the info) and stressful (I WANT MOOOOORE!!!). Now we're relaxing at Ben and Sean's, so tired. The plan is to get up and go garage sale-ing, Madison-style, before my class tomorrow. But for now, couchpod and sleeeeep.

A couple years ago, Ben lent Steve and myself a book that was a compilation of letters he wrote to his friends and family during his first year of college. He sent it as a kind of newsletter that summarized his daily life. He called it "college complaints," and it was hilariously steeped in the deep-seated but kindhearted annoyed way that Ben has. His family had it published for him, and the rest is history. However, he only wrote through the Spring of that year, and they abruptly end. This last time that we visited Ben and Sean, it was revealed that Ben began writing again a few years later, and THAT time period is now ANOTHER book of complaints. Reading it has inspired Steve and myself to try to write our own versions — me on my LJ and him on Google Drive — for at least 100 days (stretch goal being a whole year). We're thinking it would be neat to see if we can write for basically 100 straight days, and also we are interested in comparing our views on the day as well as our writing styles. We're gonna call it #couplecomplaints. So. Day 1.

Suddenly, I was awake*. This week has been insane with regards to waking up. The cuddles in bed have been too good, and I've been struggling HARD again to stay asleep at night. I notice that 5-7 times a night I'm just staring into the dark, awake. It's offered me more opportunities to rotate and snuggle Steve (or make him snuggle me), but in the morning it's hella frustrating to be so damn tired.

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So I started that last journal entry on Friday, and I added in the UTI stuff, which I dealt with this weekend. So — on to the weekend!

Friday Haley came over and did laundry and we went out to eat at a new vegan restaurant in Saint Paul, and I did my Cafetalks while she messed around with my phone (hers broke this week).

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After that I got home with enough time to help Steve clean a bit, because Mike, the one who donated the ITG machine to us, was coming over to play. That was a lot of fun, but since I haven't played much over the last month and a half, I'm out of shape and out of practice. We rotated turns and it was great! Steve passed his first 14, which has really spurred me to try to pass my first 13 and continue passing 12's.

Out of the blue, our doorbell rings and it's BEN AND SEAN!! They were in MN for a night to help with moving something and wanted to see us quick before heading home. Awwww. Ben played a song or two and complimented how nicely we'd modded the arrows for actual competitive play. I believe his exact words were, "I could reasonably see myself quadding multiple songs on this machine."

On Sunday, Steve and I continued "Get Rid of Half Our Stuff 2017" and finished everything in our room except for our old paperwork and Steve's t-shirts. We also finished the hall closet, which desperately needed attention (hoodies and extraneous kitchen appliances). After that we played like 4 hours of ITG (while streaming to no one), wherein for some reason I decide to play the 12 chart of 10 Minutes (Nightcore) right when the stream starts, and then pass it, which really encouraged me to keep practicing for the 13 (which is like my life goal). The 12 has 16/8/8 which means it has 16 measures of stream with no breaks (then 8 and then 8). The 13 chart of this song has 24/16/16 I THINK. 24 for sure at the beginning. I BARELY made it out alive with 16 straight measures of stream, I'm not sure I've ever done that before on any song of that speed. Slower streams of course aren't AS bad. But I had a really good ITG day, so surprising after not having played in awhile. It was reassuring that not all is lost and I can actually keep improving.

10 Minutes - Nightcore Hard chart. The major life drop is one section where I just always lose the pattern.

Oh, for posterity, I got my first traffic ticket in my entire life a couple weeks ago. They put in these new weird crosswalk lights and it is hard for me to notice them because they're lights but not traffic lights, and they set up a sting and I completely fell into the trap. I was leaving Nokomis and getting my stuff settled and I just did not see the guy planted there. So I got a "failure to yield at a crosswalk" ticket. The undercover guy was fighting with the officer for a good 20 minutes because he wanted me to get "running a red light" too, but I'm guessing she ultimately decided against it because I've never ever had a moving violation and she thought it was unreasonable. But it took FOREVER. He like climbed out of his car into her vehicle and everything to try to convince her.

Taking forever to write journal entries yet again. STILL haven't written my California entry...

Two of the weekends in September Steve and I stayed the weekend in Madison, though ostensibly we were there just to crash and had other things we were doing.

The first weekend, we went to Distant Worlds in Chicago, as I mentioned. Then last weekend we went to see Stephen and Owen King in Milwaukee.

Guys. Stephen King NEVER tours. He never does book signings. He doesn't need to! He doesn't care about that stuff! BUT THIS YEAR HE DECIDED TO. And! He decided to give every attendee a copy of their new book on the way out. Where UP TO 16% of them were signed by the authors (the venue said "up to 400 copies" so we don't actually know how many copies were signed). When they were talking about signing the books, SK (he calls himself Steve!!! But that would be confusing if I referred to him as Steve bc of my boyfriend) said that his son would nudge him once during each event and say, "Make this one really small." and said that ONE of the books had small signatures from each of them.

The line to get in was INSANE, and the event was totally packed. As usual, I got Steve and myself really good seats in the lower balcony.

The event was them talking about the book, each reading an excerpt, talking about their life, and SK showed everyone pictures of his Corgi Molly, who is Facebook famous because SK refers to her as The Thing of Evil.

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