Autumn, Allegedly

It is officially autumn!

And the weather is finally starting to dip and feel a little more autumn-y than it has been. The last couple of days have still gotten up into the 80s, which is a fucking bummer, but at least the evenings have been cool.

I'm really hoping this is the last week we have to mow. It's been awfully rainy, though, and if we're headed toward one of those weird warm, rainy winters, I'm going to be pissed if we somehow have to keep mowing into winter.

I just want a real winter again.

Give me snow. Give me ice. Give me that kind of winter where the whole world actually shuts the fuck down for a minute. That's my preferred winter. I don't want four months of gray skies and cold rain. That's depressing bullshit masquerading as a season.

Anyway.

I'm still going absolutely gung-ho on D&D, although trying to get information out of my players is sometimes like pulling teeth while simultaneously herding cats.

One player? I can generally count on feedback almost immediately. Same day, sometimes the next day.

The others require varying degrees of coaxing, and there are a couple where I have to really work for it. Sometimes I just don't get anything at all.

Thankfully, due to life complications, we aren't going to have another game until sometime in November, so I have plenty of time to lovingly harass everyone until they give me the information I want.

I'm also considering switching back to actual experience points for leveling.

Story-based milestone leveling is fun and convenient, but there's something really satisfying about watching that XP number creep higher and higher toward the next level. It gives everybody this visible little NUMBER GO UP reward after every session, which I kind of love.

I don't know. I'm still undecided.

September also went by in approximately seventeen fucking minutes.

October is Friday.

Actually, October is Thursday.

Jesus Christ.

I'm technically supposed to be doing my day job right now, but my day job is pretty slow today, so I'm kind of dragging my feet on doing anything. What I really want to do is take a nap.

But there's another part of my brain standing there with its hands on its hips going:

Lady. Be productive.

Work on the website.

Work on D&D.

Work on literally anything.

DO NOT TAKE THE NAP.

One of the nice things about my day job is that sometimes it affords me the ability to work on other things when it's slow. If there's actual work to do, I usually get it knocked out pretty early in the morning anyway.

So here we are.

Productively procrastinating.

Travis and I also worked out back last night, and the backyard is looking pretty damn nice. We still have to tackle the front yard, which needs mowed, and I need to start dismantling some of the flower pots and getting everything ready for the season change.

But the backyard is almost magical right now.

We moved some flower pots around, rearranged some of my fancy grasses, deadheaded a bunch of flowers, collected a ton of seeds, and now I've got seeds drying out in the garage waiting for Future May to figure out what the hell she's doing with all of them.

Travis is itching for a fire pit night.

And honestly?

So am I.

Cool air, fire going, hanging around outside together—yes please. That's exactly the kind of shit I've been waiting for.

And NEXT SATURDAY...

It has officially been decided:

WE'RE GOING TO THE RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL.

I am so fucking excited.

I still don't have my antlers built, so that's going to become a mildly frantic project sometime this week. That's okay, though. I'm pretty damn good when it comes down to the wire.

Apparently pressure is an important ingredient in my creative process.

I'm just really looking forward to the Ren Faire.

Give me some mead.

Give me a giant fucking turkey leg.

Let me wander around looking at weird shit with my cleavage out.

Not my whole boobs.

Just the appropriate Renaissance amount of boobs.

I'm pretty sure they'd get mad if I misunderstood the assignment that badly.

Anyway, I think I've officially reached the point where I'm just rambling, so that's all for now.

Happy autumn.

Now somebody tell the state it's supposed to be fucking cold.