she knows something

1. My step sister is in town and she and my mom came by today to go through the shed with her stuff in it and it looks like they cleaned out a fair bit! It's still very full of junk but if she can take a little bit every time she visits, I'll take it.

2. The AC at work was fixed when I got in today! It felt so nice. *_*

3. We went to Disneyland for dinner and although it was 100 degrees in Anaheim, we had a nice time. Because of the heat, it actually wasn't very crowded at all and was easy to find seating in the shade.

4. This chair of Carla's is not in great shape and recently crows have started to pick the stuffing out, so I was considering putting it out on the curb, but then I spotted Tuxie curled up on it, so I guess I'll keep it for now lol.

1. I went ahead and put in PTO for the Tuesday through Friday after Labor Day, so I'll have a whole week (actually 9 days including both weekends) off soon!

2. We had been planning on not going to Oogie Boogie Bash this year as we were kind of burnt out on it, but they announced Yzma as a new villain and we are both big fans, so we were kind of regretting not getting tickets, but for the first time since we started going in 2021, tickets actually didn't sell out the day they went on sale and there are still a lot of weekday tickets left. So we decided to get tickets for the Tuesday after Labor Day since I've got the week off.

3. While we were walking in the sun to the train yesterday we were wishing we'd ridden our bikes instead. Even though it's not that long a walk, it was tough on such a hot day and would have been quicker on bikes, plus you get that breeze while riding. I'd be a bit nervous about locking up our fancy bikes for so long at the station but they actually have bike lockers, so on our way home I checked them out and it's actually super cheap, only 75 cents for the first 12 hours (not 75 cents per hour, but for that whole time), so I downloaded the app and we'll use those on Sunday when we go to the museum again for Dino Fest. (Since the train lets off right in front of the museums, there's no need for bikes on that end of the trip, or we could of course take them on the train with us.)

4. Carla got some chicken thighs for dinner tonight and I got some already cleaned and halved brussels sprouts to go with them and they were so good! They were on the pricey side (not helped by the fact that I bought them at a fancy market) but having them prepped so all you have to do is just oil them up and toss them in the oven was worth it.

5. Don't miss the tummy pudge hanging down through the opening in the platform. *_*

We went to the Science Center (formerly the Museum of Science and Industry when I was in school) today!

We had been meaning to check it out since we enjoyed the Natural History Museum so much, and the other day when I was out on my bike I saw banners advertising a mummy exhibit that had been running since February and was ending on Labor Day. So I put in PTO for today and we went to the museum.

Unfortunately it was bad timing weather-wise as we are in the midst of an awful heatwave, so even the short (half a mile or so) walk to the train station was so muggy and gross. And it was only 9am when we left the house! But thankfully the train was well air-conditioned and the museum itself felt amazing inside lol. (The walk home from the train station was around noon, so was even worse, but at least after that we were just home and could go cool off in the air-conditioned garage.)

Anyway! Some photos:

( No mummy photos, but photos of other stuff )

1. We had a nice morning at Disneyland. I love the Halloween season! (I just wish the weather felt more like Halloween lol.)

2. Speaking of weather, it's supposed to be mid-high 80s all next week (here in Santa Monica, which means both work and Disneyland will be 5-10 degrees higher, yay), but it looks like it's supposed to be dropping back down to low 80s by the end of the month and the forecast I'm looking at says 81 every day for the last several days of the 10 day forecast, so let's hope that's true (or even better, that it's lower than that).

3. Tuxie!

Recently Finished
The Village of Eight Graves
The third (in translation order) Kosuke Kindaichi mystery. I liked this one a lot, but it didn't have a lot of Kindaichi himself.

The Kill Fee & The Death Beat
The next two Poppy Denby books. If I had read this series before the Clara Vale one, I likely would not have ever picked it up. I like the mysteries, but there are a lot of things that annoy me about this series (mainly the romance), and I would have assumed another series would be similar, but Clara Vale is so different in that regard. So I'm glad I read them in the "wrong" order.

Simplicity
Dystopian graphic novel set in the 2080s. A scholar goes to live in a hippie commune founded in the 1970s to interview the residents for an upcoming museum project. But weird things start happening while he's there, and then people start dying. Lots of trans characters (including the MC), and I liked the art, but the plot could use some work.

Ojisama to Neko vol. 17

Hen na Ie vol. 7

Kindaichi Papa no Jikenbo vol. 4

Gokushufudo vol. 17

1. Today was meetings all the way down. One at 11, one at 12, one at 1, a two-hour one at 3 (thankfully the 1pm one was only an hour, so I had time for lunch and a walk before the 3pm), and finally one at 5. Usually for a 5pm meeting (which is always a web meeting anyway because the reason it's so late is because it's with people in Japan, for whom it's the next morning) I try to go home first and take it there, but this time there was no time in between so I had to take it from the office and then didn't get home until nearly seven. :-/ But while that was annoying, everything else on my to-do list was stuff that can be pushed to another day, so it's not like I had to make time for other work around all these meetings, and the meetings themselves weren't total wastes of time, which isn't always the case lol. And tomorrow I only have three meetings, all clustered around midday.

2. I discovered a huge ant infestation in the garage this morning. Not even sure how they got in, since it's not like the house where there's tons of cracks and holes. They were mainly all over the sealed bags of dry cat food and I was worried one had a small hole or something, but that does not seem to be the case, so I guess they just had a cat food smell on the outside as well. The garage is much easier to clean up ants than the house, and I don't have any cats trying to "help" (I had a situation the other day in the bathroom and kitchen and Ollie kept coming and sitting down right on a huge trail of ants because he wanted to see what I was doing and also wanted breakfast). This evening I went back out to check and they seem to not be coming back, so fingers crossed there won't be a resurgence overnight.

3. Gemma!

1. This morning as I was on my walk Carla texted me to ask me to get breakfast so I stopped at the fancy bagel place and got her a bagel and a latte for myself. They have yet another new flavor, so I got that instead of getting the minty melon matcha again (though that was tempting). It's called sweet corn capp and is a cappuccino topped with a sweet corn foam and crushed corn flakes. It was so good! Maybe better than the matcha? I definitely would like to get that one again sometime.



2. We got pizza for dinner. "Just" Dominos, but sometimes that's what really hits the spot and tonight it arrived so hot and fresh. I always get their pan crust, which is so crispy and cheesy and is honestly one of my favorite pizza crusts of all time.

3. Jasper is pondering the meaning of life.

1. I was able to get out for a bike ride pretty early this morning and while there was some sun during the latter half of it, it wasn't nearly as bad as if I'd gone out later in the day. I didn't have any destination in mind, but ended up just riding around and got in a little over 18 miles.

2. That face!