Sing me a story, laugh me a lullaby

Hello! Back for another 'hey, still here' update. We are all still here. Mom's had a bit of a setback in her recovery--it turns out that she did have an infection, plus the haematoma. It was a bit of phone tag, but she finally got some antibiotics and everything is so much better now. The pain is better and the haematoma is almost gone, which they told her would take 6-12 months, so that's a bonus. Massage therapy is wonderful, folks, I highly recommend it for all your ailments. Also tea. We've been using a lot of David's Tea for therapeutic purposes and it's both delicious and helpful.

We were at the cottage last week and had a really great time. My cousin came with her new baby one day and the rest of the time we just chilled. Except for a harrowing drive in the rain back from a massage appointment. It was torrential. We made it through safely because my father is an excellent driver, but country roads and heavy downpours can make for a very stressful drive.

I've been playing a game like crazy lately, called Drawception, and it is keeping me so entertained. I heard about it through a youTuber I like and it's kind of like a game of Telephone/Chinese Whispers. Someone starts off the game, either with a prompt or a drawing, and it's randomly handed off to another player, who has to either draw the prompt or caption the picture, which is then handed on to the next player. No one has any idea where they are in the chain or what else has been written/drawn, so they just have to make their best guess, and the results can be hilarious. Here's a prime example of a mutating prompt: Hummingbirds are the sharks of the sky.

You can get people who suck, of course, purposefully derailing a game or trolling, but on the whole, I've only seen one mean comment in the whole time I've played. People are generally very nice and get along well and don't care if you're a good or bad artist. You don't have to draw, you can skip drawing prompts and only do prompting if you want, or you can just draw and not prompt, or you can do both.

If you're interested in joining, I do have a few tips for newbies:
- You seriously don't have to be able to draw well, stick figures work and sometimes the worse the drawing is, the more hilarious the game becomes
- You have ten minutes to draw. At first, this seems like such a short time, but once you settle in, you'll realize it's longer than you think and you can take your time.
- Don't comment on the drawing quality, good or bad, during the game. It's rude to say it's bad and saying it's awesome puts pressure on the next person. You can leave comments on the game when it's over and that's where you should compliment the drawings.
- There are a few established game patterns you might come across. One is "PIO", which means Pass it On. It's sort of the opposite of the intention of the game, the person who started wants the theme consistent. If you see 'PIO' written on the picture, you should write whatever else is written and add PIO in your prompt. If you see a prompt with PIO and want to draw it, make sure to write it plus PIO somewhere on your drawing. It's not an official rule and you won't be penalized for ignoring it, but it is considered bad form to purposefully derail it.
- Another form of game is a WikiHow game, which someone will start off with a Step One, then next person either prompts or draws Step Two and so on. If you receive a prompt with a Step number in it, draw the NEXT step, not the prompt itself. If you receive a drawing with a Step in it, prompt with the next step, don't describe the drawing. Here's an example of a successful game: Become a Mermaid (Warning for cartoon vomit).
- If you don't want to draw or prompt, you can skip. There's no penalty for it and you can skip as much as you want. If you don't know a prompt or can't think of anything, always skip. Do not derail. Derailing is for jerks.
- There's a lot of running 'jokes' and memes that can get annoying, but you can always skip them. Shrek is an oddly popular meme. And poop. And death. But you'll come across good prompts often enough to enjoy it if all that's not your jam. All games should be SFW unless you opt in to NSFW games. You can report any games which break the rule, there's a flag at the top of the screen.

Mom came home from the hospital a couple of days ago and is doing really well. Turns out the information we got from the surgeon was wrong--she actually bled more than last time (but, you know, he's an ortho surgeon so as long as the bone bits are fine, as far as he's concerned, it went well :-P). But she is certainly not as sick and her blood pressure didn't drop, so she's recovering much better. Also, we didn't know how low her haemoglobin was last time, so we weren't treating it for a few months. This time, we've got her on the blood builder right away. They did a different approach than the last hip, too, so there are different restrictions than last time in what movements she can do and can't do for the next little while. There's more swelling too, but she seems to be in much better spirits than last time.

I've been looking after her and also getting back into doing some graphics-like stuff. I miss my PaintShop Pro, which is Windows only and I'm on a Mac now. I tried the Photoshop CC trial, and OMG, it is soooo much easier to do anything on there than in the other programmes I've been trying. But it's also sooooo expensive. Why did they switch to a subscription service? That's impossible for an amateur to keep up with. Affinity Designer and Photo were recommended to me, and they are one time payments for a reasonable amount of money. Designer I really like. Super easy to use, with even better features in some areas than PS. But the Photo one isn't quite as good for what I want to do. It would be good for icons and stuff, but not so much for painting and drawing, and I haven't quite worked out if I can do what I want in Designer on that front. But we'll see. I have a few options I'm trying out before I make a decision to buy.

In the meantime, I did this watercolour photomanip thing of my vampire, Mat:



It was originally a picture of Tom Mison, which I first manipulated the colours on and then did a watercolour effect over. Learning skills is fun!

Back for another 'hey, I'm not dead' update. Basically, yes, I am not dead. I am still here. Still passing kidney stones. Still very tired. But, feeling a little more creative, maybe?

We've had a weird thing going on around here for the last two weeks where Mom and I keep finding coins everywhere. In weird places. Like, on the ledge of the steps of the back porch stairs. And behind a chair in the den. And on the floor of my room, even though I never carry change and no one who comes into my room does either. And on the ground of the parking lot next to our car. And on a ledge by the front door that we just put something on a few minutes earlier and didn't see a coin there. Mom thinks someone on the other side is trying to get our attention. Whatever the reason, it's weird, and I might write a story about it.

Mom is having hip replacement surgery tomorrow, the other hip than the last one. Last time she bled a lot and had a hard recovery as a result, but we've investigated and think we know the possible reasons why that happened and it's the same surgeon and anesthetist as last time, so at the very least, they know what to do if it happens again. She's taking the coins as a sign things are going to go better this time.

Hope everyone else is chugging along!

Here I am to prove my existence once again. Still feeling kind of yucky, healthwise, but maybe a little better. My dad's had some health issues now, in addition to my woes and my mum needing another hip replacement, so Ascii is the healthiest member of the family right now, but we're getting by.

In Ancestry news, my mom's DNA came back, and it was also about what we expected (except more Southern French than we knew about), but with the exciting news that her grandfather, who was illegitimate and adopted, is, in fact, the biological son of the man who adopted him, or at least a member of his immediate family (we found matches with people who were connected to both his adoptive father's mother's and father's lines). We had a lot of family legends around that, and I haven't been able to find anything to link him to a mother yet, but it's cool to have it confirmed he was biologically related to that line of people in some way. I also found out my grandparents were very, very distant cousins, which is interesting. The area of Quebec they came from is pretty small, so it's not surprising there was some crossing of lines there. My mother's side has over a thousand people matched with her DNA, so a lot more people on that side have taken the test, compared to my father's side, who only had about 400 results, I think.

And someone on my father's side of the family (his mother's cousin), got in touch with me and has given me so much information about my great-grandmother's family. Pictures, full biographies, documents, like, just tons of awesome stuff. And he solved a family mystery I've been working for YEARS without success, so that's great to have cleared up for me.

If I can just figure out how my other great-grandmother on that side got to Canada (she is on no boat records, despite the rest of her family being there) and clear up the whole 'birth mother' thing on the other side of the family, I will have solved all the mysteries.

Whew, it's been a long time without a post. Unfortunately, my battle with unexplained kidney stones goes onwards, so I've spent a lot of time in the tub and in bed instead of writing. Not that I need to be writing, I just like to be. But I'm still fiddling away with things, so hopefully, a story will come at some point, even if it's just original fic I'm playing around with.

In brighter news, I have lost a bunch of weight since I changed my diet back in July. All healthily and carefully and necessary. I have PCOS, which makes me prone to gaining weight and is benefitted by the loss of it. So, I'm working away and it's going well and hasn't been too hard or unenjoyable.

If anyone is interested, the Mediterranean diet was recommended by a few health officials to me and/or family members, and so far has been working great for us. It's not very strict and gives you lots of options. Even with my tomato allergy, I've found lots to eat that fit the bill.

And it cute news, we bought a new living room chair back in the Fall and Ascii has claimed it in the Name of Scotties, and it hilariously big for how small she is, but that does not stop her from being important on it: (click to embiggen)


Hope everyone else is functioning to their best abilities! Remember to be kind to yourselves! Everyone keeps reminding me of this, so I will pass along the message.

Hola, my Yankee friends! Just dropping in to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a pleasant, unstressful time in your celebrations, or, if you aren't celebrating, get a few days off to relax. Be careful at those Black Friday sales!

I subscribed to AcornTV a couple of months ago, which is a streaming service like Netflix that carries mainly British drama and mystery shows, with a handful of other content. It's been worth it, there's a lot for great stuff on there, and I've been enjoying wading through it.

They recently added an Italian show called Il Paradiso delle Signore, which is based on the Emile Zola novel, Au Bonheur Des Femmes. Both titles loosely translate as The Ladies Paradise, and follow the plot of a department store for women. The Italian version updates it to the 1950s. It's fabulous! The costumes, the acting, the story, everything is really great. The only problem is the subtitles. I am incredibly disappointed by the subtitles. I don't speak Italian, so it's not that I disagree with how they're translated. I'm talking about clumsy, awkward sentences and phrasing, inconsistent translation, and at times hilarious mistranslations, like someone referring to their daughter as their sister, and someone becoming a Doctor Conti for one episode only, when he is Mister Conti in the rest of the episodes. To be fair, he is addressed as Dottore, and I've looked it up and am a bit confused, but it seems like any person who had a degree in the old Italian university system could call themselves doctor, and it might just be another version of Mister? But decide, translators, and stick to it.

My favourite mistake by far is in the second episode (which is way worse than the others I've seen so far), when, for some reason, a character's name, Galli, is translated consistently as Turkeys throughout the episodes. And because he is often addressed in a 'oh, there you are' fashion, it results in a character repeatedly exclaiming 'Turkeys!' for no apparent reason.

What makes this even funnier is, having looked it up, it appears that Galli isn't even the word for turkey, it's the word for hens.

Anyway, mistakes aside, the plot is easily understandable and I've never been confused as to what's happening, but do wish they'd taken the time to translate properly. It's such a good show.

Long time no post. It's been sort of A Series of Unfortunate Events around here for the past little while, thankfully most of which have resolved favourably, or are on their way to being good. I'm not good for much these days, but Mom and I have been making some dietary changes, trying to swap out ingredients for healthier versions and eat a bit less, in aid of both our health woes. It's been really yummy! Dad had been doing most of the cooking for dinner and continually making meals that didn't appeal to Mom, who has very low iron still from the blood loss during her surgery last year. So we decided she and I would make dinner, and if Dad wanted, he could share, or he could make his own dinner, and the meals we've had have been really delicious.

Anyway, in my search for good recipes, I stumbled on pumpkin chili. About four years ago, I started reacting to nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant) and had to cut them out from my diet. It wasn't that big a deal once I got the hang of swapping things, but things like spaghetti with tomato sauce and pizza with tomato sauce and chili was something I really missed. I decided to give the pumpkin chili a try and it was amazing! Not quite like real tomatoes, but a similar flavour, and very satisfying. After fiddling around, I was able to make spaghetti and pizza sauce from it, too, both of which were also excellent. I thought I'd post my method here, for those who also have allergies, or are avoiding nightshades due to arthritis or dietary concerns, or just wanted to try it. It still tastes of pumpkin, so if you don't like pumpkin, this won't make it taste any less pumpkiny. Just more tomato-y.

Tomatoish Sauce Base
1 15 oz/398ml can of pumpkin puree (or pumpkin/squash mix)
1 cup of broth of your choice
Seasoning of your choice (I use garlic powder, black pepper, and salt)
1 tbs white vinegar (optional, but gives it a more 'tomato-y' tang)

Combine all ingredients together, seasoning to your liking. Pumpkin is bland, so prepare to season a lot.

To make chili: throw the base into a slow cooker with some beans, ground meat of your choice (brown it first!), and whatever else you want. Cook on low for eight hours or high for four. I'm no good at serving sizes, but I got three large bowls of chili from it, so it will serve at least three if not more.

To make spaghetti sauce: add a little bit of sugar or sweetener to the base (I put in two tsps), and whatever else you'd like. We use ground beef, mushrooms, and onions, browned together. Add that to the base, and warm over low in a sauce pot until heated to your liking. I got two servings of sauce out of it. We take spaghetti seriously here, you might get more if you don't like as much sauce.

To make pizza sauce: add a little bit of sugar or sweetener. Stick on a pizza crust, add toppings, and follow crust directions to bake. I halved the recipe and got one pizza out of it, so the full recipe should be enough for two pizzas.

We've safely arrived at the cottage, and there is excellent Wi-Fi, which we've been told is unlimited, so we can stream and everything, which is nice. It's pouring rain just at the moment, sort of a Canada Day tradition. I remember every year when I was little, we'd settle in for the big concert on Parliament Hill at night and every year it would start, then get get rained out, until they moved it to midday instead. We didn't attend any celebrations, so it doesn't matter much, and the weather up to now has been middling to fair, and travel days are wasted ones anyway, so it's not a big deal.

The new cottage is amazing, even better than the old one. The only downside is lack of dishwasher, which is countered by the inclusion of a bathtub, so swings and roundabouts, really. And as a super bonus, I don't have to sleep on the couch, which I did at the old cottage after the year it tried to kill me. I have a bedroom and a bed!

Anyway, all is well, and we're settled in nicely and should have a good week.

Mom and I watch When Calls the Heart on CBC, which is a super cheesy, but cute show (hot frontier mounties!) that we enjoy because this trend toward gritty/violent/dark television really isn't our jam. Despite it being a joint American/Canadian production, they've shown, I think five seasons in the States, but only two here. Season 3 started here last night.

Except, oh, by the way, there was a two-hour special that aired at Christmas of 2015 in the States and CBC either couldn't it show here or decided not to, for some reason. So that cliffhanger at the end of Season 2? Resolved in the special. New backstory for existing characters? Brought in during the special. New characters extremely relevant to the current season? Brought in during the special. This was covered in a brief 'previously on' at the start of the episode where Mom and I looked at each other and went 'I don't remember that'.

At first, we thought maybe we'd missed an episode, but I looked on the CBC website and they have everything up to stream, but nothing we hadn't seen. So I checked Wiki and discovered there'd been a special. Then I looked on Netflix, because it's up there, but they didn't have it either. Nor does iTunes. We managed to hunt down a very detailed recap from a fansite to fill in our missing knowledge and there were clips available elsewhere, so we got through well enough, but geez, CBC.

It's possible they aired it as a special at some point and we missed it, but the fact that the three legal resources I looked at didn't have it suggests that they didn't.

Of course, in the grand scheme of the world, this isn't important, but it is annoying, especially for a girl who just wants happy television as she recovers from six months of feeling like total crap and a previous year of feeling like semi-crap.

Thankfully MST3K on Netflix has been proving to be extremely enjoyable for a frazzled brain. :-D