Well, it's the day before Cthulhumas eve, and all through the Château, lots of tentacles were stirring...and I'm not trying to rhyme...

Was an early start, was having a lovely visual dream about a bay or a loch or something in the UK. Lovely view of fog over water, then a rainbow through the fog. Then I woke up...and was wide awake. Got up, wished Amythest a happy spawning day, and noticed that Hydra's external 5tb drive wasn't mounted. Or detectable. *sigh* USB3 is one of buggiest bits of hardware out there. Verified the drive is fine by plugging it into two other systems. I tried making all kinds of changes to fix things, and eventually gave up. Went back to bed and dozed. Sadly Hydra didn't fix itself while I was sleeping. The plan is either to move the drive, figure out a hack fix for usb3 and Linux Mint 17.3, or test some other linux version on Hydra's gear. But not tonight, the plan is to do it on Saturday. See what I can do. I guess I could always reinstall Linux Mint 17.2 (where things just worked). We'll see.

Got back up, got mail, went to pick up a small gift bag...and I saw someone who might have been one of Mom's friends back when she lived in Menopause Manor before her fall. I ducked down an aisle and got out of the store pretty quick. I just couldn't handle telling someone that Mom had passed. Not right now. *sigh* Did the daily critter care, but I didn't stay long...I just wanted to be home. So I came home, got comfy, nuked some dinner, and I'm watching episodes of 'The Expanse'. Pretty nifty show so far, fair amount of science in the science fiction. Probably going to stay up late again, I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow til late afternoon. Then Star Wars and friends. Yay. On that, I'll call this a post. Catch you all later.

Another mostly decent day. Did laundry, cleaned the living room a bit, did dishes, got a script from the pharmacy. Then I went to get the mail, and found out my uterine sibling just pulled off a Cthulhumas miracle, or at least, mind reading.

There is a picture of my folks on their honeymoon at Jamaica, that is always what comes up when I think of them. I have Mom's copy of it here, somewhere. (lots of Mom boxes in the closet). I got a copy of it in the Christmas card from sibling... queue me tearing up in a happy way. Already reached out to said sibling and said many thanks. Now to find a perfect frame for it. Something nautical or beach-y. (tentacles wouldn't hurt) ;)

(I don't have a scanner, and I suck at cameras, but I'll bring it to Amythest's over the holidays and get it scanned in, and post it so you guys can see my folks)

I also got a card from my Secret Shoggoth, who really liked the mixed pile of stuff I sent him. Which was very appreciated, I was wondering if they were waiting for the actual holiday to open things.

Critter care was fine, had an amusing moment where Valentine, the world's friendly cat used me as furniture. So I texted his human the following... "Valentine is camped on my chest. I may never move again. Put on my tomb stone I was good cat furniture and died happy." Stopped and got a cheesesteak on the way back, oh it was so good. Now I'm just vegging at home, watching another Holiday dated movie 'Prometheus'. Yay pseudo-Xenomorphs and really dumb scientists.

Otherwise I've been tinkering, upgraded Hydra to Mint 17.3 with no noticeable issues, updated the VM that hosts my external sites and rebooted it without issues. Updated some software I build from source and am currently going through my collection of flash drives to make sure they all have unique names (I'm OCD on the weirdest things). Tomorrow will be more general chores around the house, probably binge watching a TV show I need to catch up on, and of course, critter care. I expect to be showered with kitty and puppy affection. Then it's Cthulhumas/Star Wars eve, friends, lightsabres and tentacles...a wonderful thing. And on that note, I'm going to call this a post. Catch you all later.

Today went pretty good. Woke up ok, got meds, shower, dressed, etc. Called my doc-in-a-box about bloodwork (I need to fast the night before, damn), then started calling around to find a restaurant that would be open on Cthulhumas Day. Gah, I haven't heard no so much since I was in my teens and dating. 12 'nope, not opens' and lucky number 13 ended up being a steakhouse. Oh well, there's stuff I like well enough on the menu. About the same time there was a knock on the door, UPS delivery...and oh my Cthulhu there was a lot of boxes. Part was section 2 of my original 'Cthulhu Wars' kickstarter. Really, I need to setup another room to display all the minis I have now. And I don't game...oy. The other package was from my 'Secret Shoggoth', one of the HPL groups I'm a part of tried doing a gift exchange. I made out like a bandit. A book, a metal bookmark, a Funko Cthulhu, and... a box of business cards from the Esoteric Order of Dagon. *Happy cultist dance* So Santa Cthulhu showed up early, and it was glorious.

After that, I then decided to throw caution to the wind, and I went to Walmart. got enough food for the next week and change, including some treats for me. The lines were kind of crazy, but I found one that was open...I think people were avoiding it because the light was blinking. I asked, the checkout person went 'Ooops' and turned it off. So win for me. Came home, unloaded my haul, made some lunch and watched 'Predator'. Seemed fitting, since I'd watched two 'Alien' movies recently, to watch the two good 'Predator' flicks, and finish tonight with 'Alien vs Predator'. Between 1 and 2, I ran out to do critter care, and since I was in the area I went by a new Whole Foods to look for some fancy lemonade.

Odd thing, the WFM was build where an Albertsons that I worked at used to be. Smelled like incense and overpriced organic food *chuckle* I found a fancy cherry lemonade, and a grape soda with octopuses on the label. So I had to get that as well. Came home, cursed whoever had the bright idea to put roundabouts in a state where yielding is considered a sin. Made dinner, been watching assorted aliens duke it out. Tomorrow is late laundry and other around the house chores. Vague ideas of spending the day in bookville. I really don't have much else to do right now, and I probably should bank some extra tentacles for the holidays. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Catch you all later.

Weekend was mostly good, save at night where my mood had a bad habit of cratering. Luckily, night time also leads to book reading, which tends to stabilize my mood. I'm a mess.

Saturday was running around the local Great Wolf Lodge for Amythestmas. We treat birthdays as big deals, and given it's proximity to the holidays, we get a lot to do. And since Amythest and Nymaz are epicly kids at heart, GWL is a lot of fun. We did their 'magic quests', which involved running around assorted floors of the hotel, with me trying to come up with bright ideas, and apply snarky comments. They were the adventurers, I was the NPC retainer. They also have an indoor pool/water park, which got me some swimming time. Was a good time, until the crowds of kids triggers an anxiety spikes. Tentacles, I had none. I joked that 'Your neutral good NPC is drifting towards Chaotic Evil, and that leads to the guards being called'. So I headed out, did some critter care for friends out of town, came home...and see the above mentioned mood crash. But, between Roman history and a Roman mystery, I was able to get back into an ok mood and sleep.

I woke up on time, headed out and met up with the gang at the other big hotel, the Gaylord, for the traditional Ice show. We've been doing this for I can't remember how long. Ice carvings, each year with a theme in near zero temps. So I'm kind of comfy, and the others are...not. *laugh* This year was 'Christmas around the world', traditional costumes and well, traditions. Most of which I kind of knew, but a few were knew to me, Ethiopia for example. Then we did the other traditional gingerbread decorations, then headed back into Grapevine proper to pick up the ornaments they did Friday night, and wander the odd shops on Main Street. A shop selling assorted olive oils and vinegars was doing a tasting, and I decided to be curious (normally my opinion of olive oil is fairly bland). But there was a lime infused one that was really...bright tasting for lack of a better word, so I ended up buying a bottle. Probably will just use it with bread, as I'm not a cook. Or I may get inventive with Apicius and nuke food and have a Roman feast. I promise, no actual dormice. We got lunch in a bistro on Main, same place we've been going to for a few years, and I got a Fried Green Tomato BLT like last year. Tomato + deep fry = yum. After that, we called it a weekend due to general tiredness. I ran over to do critter care, and came home.

I've got a 90's 'Alien' knockoff playing in the background, while I'm writing this. Writing up my TODO list for the next week, I'm busy with stuff...which is probably good for me. I think after this dorky movie ends, I'll put on the holiday classic 'The Legend of Hell House', and maybe cook up some dinner. Also going to cross my tentacles that no mood swings happen tonight. A cultist can dream, right ?

Ok, quick state of the Fox. I've been sleeping betterish, I think a combination of evening Xanax and pushing myself to stay up til after 11 has been helping. Still having odd dreams, but they're less twitchy. Last night had something to do with ancient Mesopotamian gods (Nergal if you're curious) laying the smack down on people. Got up, did things, went to the previously mentioned movie. I ran a couple of chores, came home, been watching nautical movies (Master and Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean). I'm also planning this weekend, which is a bunch of celebrating of Amythest's spawning day. Yay for best friends. I also need to find a place open on Cthulhumas day for dinner that takes reservations. Ugg, phone calls. *sigh*

Otherwise, I'm working on the weekly updates, running servers now. Since this week had kernel updates it's taking a while. I'll probably try to finish up my New York posts tomorrow as well. Really, they're written, I just have to fill in gaps, correct bad typing/spelling, and just post them. But postponement, thy name is Vulpine.

Going to call it a night in a bit, so I should call this a post. Catch you all later.

I slept mostly ok, less wake ups and woke up not feeling as down. Thank Cthulhu.

Still not doing my best, another night of broken sleep and sad feeling this morning. I did manage to get moving, and get my Secret Shoggoth package sent out. Should be there Friday. Walking didn't work so well, lower back and hip were giving me grief. Still made goal today, eventually. Also went to the store to get the forgotten hotdog buns and some spawning day cards, one for soon, one for later (the later involves bacon). Came home, futzed around and generally have been in the same down mood I've stayed in lately. At least I got to have the hotdogs for dinner.

Right now I'm futzing around with online surveys and watching 'A Haunting' style shows on the TV. I'm going to try avoiding going to bed early tonight, maybe then I'll sleep more solid. I can dream at least. Or at least have higher quality dreams. I see Innsmouth stories before bed in my future too. Maybe that's what I need?

I'm also wanting to go see 'In the Heart of the Sea', which will probably be a me going alone flick. Which is ok, it's not a flick my local friends would be interested in much. I also want to go see the new Star Wars flick, but not interested in crazy lines and crowds. I guess we'll see when friends want to go, and go from there. I'll also freely admit to planning on looking up spoilers for a certain character, because I really just want to know if I'm going to be upset or not. (Right now, I need forewarning on such things)

So that's me right now. I'm probably not going to post my daily posts after this for a while, unless I have something new to report. I just seem to be saying the same things over and over again. Don't worry, I'm not planning on vanishing, I just feel like a broken record, and I need to change things. (of course, now that I've said that, I'll have 10 things to report tomorrow) Catch you all later.

And I'm not feeling fine. I'm having issues with sleep, not getting enough rest, weird active/anxious dreams, and either waking up before the sun, or after 10 snoozes. *sigh* I'm also on emotional eggshells. NCIS watching with Amythest yesterday gave me a small breakdown (one of the character's Dad died), and today while watching 'Return of the Jedi' the ending celebrations had me in tears as well. I really am starting to think that this Cthulhumas will be a huge emotional rollercoaster. Not sure how best to deal with it yet. Probably will just have to muddle through it til Boxing Day.

Besides having all the feels, I finally made it to the store to do real shopping. Of course, having the brain of a gopher, I bought hotdogs, but forgot to get hotdog buns. So I'll have to make another stop. I did a mega load of dishes, got mail, and I'm slowly picking up the clutter around Château Innsmouth. I need to finish putting together my Secret Shoggoth package, since it's due tomorrow. Procrastination, thy name is Vulpine. That being said, said shoggie is going to get some cool stuff. Probably will spend some extra Innsmouth Gold to get it shipped 2nd day or something similar, to make sure it gets up North in time.

I also have an idea for swapping stuff around here at Château Innsmouth's network. Basically I've decided that Cthylla, the gaming rig, isn't used for squat. And Nyogtha, while working decently, would probably make a better file server. So, at some point in the future I'll swap them around. Cthylla has 6 available SATA ports, so I can add drives to her and migrate the multimedia when I have an income again, and I can mount the drives from Nyogtha via NFS for now to play the media. All nice and functional. And when I get around to upgrades, Cthylla has a HDMI port and the proc/mem/video card to play BluRay (in theory). I was planning on using Cthylla for a future primary workstation, but looking at what I can get affordably for another used Thinkstation, I'll probably go that route in the future. I like Lenovo, and rarely have issues. And moving Cthylla to media box = no spending of money. So I can sate the tinker urge without spending money I don't have to spend ATM. Not sure when I'll start the process, we'll see what else I get done first.

Not much else. Need to start pimping out the resume, since while it isn't perfect, I need to find something soon. Not just for financial reasons, but I need to do more than just rattle around here. Motivation, I need more external motivation. Tonight will be leftover potato soup from Saturday for dinner. And more chores. So many chores...oh well, keeps me busy. Ok, catch you all later. *waves a tentacle*