Enphoned, like an upwardly mobile monkey

Andrew and I adopt what I am sure the world
sees as our 'gay dads'  aspect.

This weekend was very heavily about Arya and Hanna, being the former's birthday (almost) and the first time I'd seen the latter since her birthday, as well as Mother's Day.

We took Arya to the zoo, which she appeared to love, although the stuffed owl that she chose from the gift shop went out of favour as it was being paid for. It feels hard to complain when that was her only serious present from us, and came in cheaper than one zoo ticket, especially as there is every chance of a change of favour any day.

One girl!
Girl for sale!
Going cheap,
Only seven guineas.

I loved the zoo as well. I've always loved a good zoo - although I have dim memories of one in, I think, America that was so dismal that it just made me very sad, despite the fact that I was only a few years old - and Banham is pretty good, and there was a flying display with an owl who was comically resistant to trainer instructions. I was dressed a little fancy, as is my wont, and in retrospect I think the combination of baby reins and steampunky waistcoat and watch chain might have looked a little like I was trying to sell Arya.

Then we went to visit my parents, and I admit I always enjoy an opportunity for Arya to spend time with them. In this instance I kind of fell asleep on the sofa (rough night + four hours of walking around a zoo,) but it was a good time and Arya seemed to remember them well enough this time, which is a big part of the point. I guess the polyamory is still new enough for me that I want to be sure the family is working.

On Sunday we went swimming, then had brunch at Chiquito's so we could go into town and Hanna could get shoes. Hanna's shopping was unusually positive (in addition to new shoes, they told her they would accept for exchange the ones that never fit quite right,) and we were able to get two damaged charms from her bracelet replaced or repaired without caviling about receipts (always tricky for gifts.) On a personal note, I popped into the O2 shop and explained that as the local Carphone Warehouse had shut down, no-one had contacted me about the end of my contract, and could I sort something out so that I didn't have to keep paying through the nose for a phone I owned outright.

I am now the (proud?) owner of an LG G3, which is so far pretty good, and most importantly is no more than I was paying. It is also scarily fast compared to the old Note 1; Plants vs Zombies is scary as hell.

Back at home, I cooked a big roast dinner (chicken) for Mother's Day, which ran a little later than I'd planned, but did work out pretty well. I also have leftovers.

Forgive me if it goes astray

I have an evil persona. Well, not really evil; he's more of a whiny, passive-aggressive dick. He comes out when I'm tired or stressed or especially hungry, and while I mostly have him in hand these days, I still have moments where I become the whiny, passive-aggressive me and I hurt the people I care about.

In place of a picture of me acting like a dick,
here is a gorilla painted like Iron Man.

Please note the careful use of pronouns there. While I consider this side of my personality to be 'not me', I'm not writing off responsibility for my actions. Whiny, passive-aggressive dick me is still me.

On the upside, I deal with this better than I used to. I manifested this side of myself on Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, and snapped at Hanna. It was utterly uncalled for, horribly unfair and frankly ungrateful. I immediately regretted it, but you can't take these things back. I'm just glad that Hanna didn't drive off into the night with Arya swearing never to speak to me again. It might have been an overreaction, but not by very much.

Anyway, as was my response to this would have been to justify myself, but I've grown as a person. When Hanna sent me to bed with a flea in my ear I lay awake for a while, running through the various justifications in my head. This gave me the chance to assess just how much of a moaning tosser I would have sounded like and realise that when you do something for which you can expect no forgiveness, the only thing you can do is ask and hope.

And Hanna is an amazing person. I'm not saying I won't pay for this later, but she certainly didn't make a thing of it when we were both still exhausted, which shows far more wisdom than I did.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, for it is better to seek to do better than to crave indulgence for past failures. This weekend I shall not see Hanna and Arya at all, and that will sting, but the reason is that I am attending my first field LRP. I'll be crewing at No Rest for the Wicked, at Castle Fansh near Haltwhistle. I have... some kit options in hand.

I have also resolved that for financial reasons I am going to try to mod my own Nerf guns.

This does mean that I will miss Hanna's birthday, but I am instead letting her use my flat for a girly sleepover, which thus means this week's evenings will largely be given over to some manner of tidying and laying in of luxury hot chocolate components. We then have a plan to take Arya to the zoo next weekend, have a birthday tea with my parents and then a family mother's day.

Somnia, I AM IN YOU!

Bleagh.

Some nights I just can't get to sleep, however tired I am. I just sort of tense up into a ball of aches and pains; it's no fun at all.

Stuff

It's basically one of these. It's suppose to moo when you take
the lid off, but actually moos whenever you move near it.
Burglars beware!

I have acquired substantial amounts of stuff this weekend, as Hanna's parents have cleared out their garage and shipped Hanna's stored gubbins down to live in my garage. Said gubbins includes furniture, books and a substantial set of cow crockery. It's a good thing I'm not a habitually-armed American or I would have shot the damned cookie jar already; the damned thing keeps mooing at me out of nowhere.

We also took delivery of Hanna's substantial, but not quite complete, set of Ravenloft material, a testament to her teenage obsession with Count Strahd von Zarovich. This includes the novel I, Strahd, which I irritated Hanna by suggesting was compatible with the I, Frankenstein. Finally, there was a bag of comics which may or may not be worth anything. I may have a stab at cataloguing them, purely to save Hanna the effort and not to sneak a read or anything.

"If I don't look at them, maybe the weird orbiting
naked chicks will just go away."

So, my place looks a little more than usually as if a bomb - or perhaps a toddler - had hit it, but once we get a chance to sort the nursery (since Arya doesn't need the cot anymore) some of that stuff may come in handy soon.

This weekend's second major fixture was lunch with MattMatt. It's been an age since we saw him, as schedules basically prevented us getting to a Hatfield game for ages. It was a salutary reminder that we need to work at not losing touch with people, as well as a lovely afternoon of good food, good company and watching someone else entertain Arya for a while. We would totally provide references if he ever wanted to adopt.

Coming home from MattMatt's was a little fraught, but it's my own stupid fault. I got on the wrong train and had to get off and turn around at Shelford. In addition, there's a bus from Ely to King's Lynn on Sundays, but at least the driver let us off in town. I wouldn't have minded so much, but the weather was absolutely vile last night; cold, wet and miserable.

Still, I got cheapish takeaway Chinese and it was so nice getting into my little warm flat full of Ravenloft modules. it really felt homey.

Tell me why, actor man?

Hanna suggested that I photograph the label as I didn't
have a pen on me.

The last few days I have been awfully ill. In fairness, it could have been worse. Hanna was able o give me fair warning of how bad the affliction in question might get, so I've been on antibiotics since the infection began to show on Friday morning. All things considered, taking Arya into Ely on Saturday may have been a bit much. I was ludicrously pleased when Hanna got back from her game at around dinner time instead of in the small hours of the morning.

Other than being ill since Thursday, and sleeping on the sofa so that Hanna and I didn't keep each other awake with our coughing, it was a good weekend though. Arya continues to push boundaries, but I got to spend a load of time with her and with Hanna. We were both ill, so it was mostly cuddles and TV, but it was good to have something to ourselves.

On Sunday we went to see The Book of Life, an animated film by Guillermo del Toro which I originally saw part of with Arya. She had a go at walking out again and I missed the very end of the movie watching my daughter circle in the lobby of the cineworld Huntingdon. After that, we went to a Living History Fair in Godmanchester, where I mostly window shopped for LARP kit and Hanna recnnected with friends from Maelstrom/Empire or people her parents knew.

We had pancakes at dinner, which was nice.

Dippy and Deprivation

Dippy the Diplodocus (c. Drow Male, Creative Commons)

So, they're moving the diplodocus from the Great Hall of the Natural History Museum in London. It's not been there forever, but it's certainly been there since I were a lad, so Hanna and I are quite keen to take Arya to see the Museum before they replace it with a blue whale. I'm not, for the record, angry about this or anything; I entirely get that Dippy isn't even a real skeleton, but is composed entirely of casts of bones, but standing and gazing up at the diplodocus is otherwise an experience I won't get to share with my daughter.

Why does this seem of great importance? Well, quite possibly because I am seriously tired, due to Arya's ill-health at the weekend. It changes your priorities does exhaustion, although I did get to sleep last night, so I'm not as bad as I was yesterday.

Of greater actual moment is the awareness that I need to start looking for a change of job. I'm reluctant, because where I am now is really pretty good to me. If it was only a little more money I would never leave.

Insomnia and other passtimes

"Whatcha doing?"
"Oh, just lion around."

Illness is easier to cope with when you're getting plenty of sleep. Sleep is easier to come by when you're healthy. To quote the Devil in Brimstone:

"These microbes never cease to amaze me. An orgy of pain and suffering in such a little tiny package. You really have to give that old bitch Mother Nature a lot of credit."

My illness from last week persisted pretty much through to today, manifesting primarily as a painful throat and mouth blisters. By Thursday I thought I might have tonsilitis; by Saturday throat cancer. For various reasons then, I was not sleeping so well. I'm still pretty blitzed, as it goes, but I shall recover.

Between this extended lethargy and not seeing Arya at the weekend, I was pretty low, but better now for some baby time this weekend. I did consider trying to blag swimming, but I got the last two and its no fair if Hanna never gets in the pool with Arya. It was a very tired weekend - I managed to fall asleep in the denouement of The Wolfman, despite all the roaring and screaming.

I need to aim for austerity this month, financially and in terms of diet. January was expensive and I have No Rest for the Wicked and lots of major birthdays in March. This is in part why I was so peeved that, when the screen for Kingsman failed on Saturday, I couldn't find anything else to watch and ended up spending more than I should on a big lunch. If I'd capped that off by losing my scarf I would have been gutted, but fortunately noticed in time to go back for it. I also got to see the first few minutes of Into the Woods, which together with The Wolfman added up to an Emily Blunt-heavy Saturday.

I would have liked a little more time to spend with Hanna, but it's always good just to see her. Anyway, my thoughts and condolences are with her and Andrew today, as they are at his Gran's funeral.