I got rained on and I'm super sore + achy, but I had tons of fun today!!!! The Mt Vernon Flower Mart is back and we were in the market for more plants (aka, more peppers, since those were what we had the most success with last year), so Pat and I planned on meeting Liz there after they got off work. Pat ended up inviting Elio, since we hadn't seen him in awhile, and by chance he'd been planning on going today, too!!!

HOWEVER. I thought I was meeting Pat and Elio at the light rail stop by Pat's work, but Pat thought I was meeting them at the flower mart...so they left without me XD It's cool, I can handle taking the train alone...it was just really silly since they just left like RIGHT before I got there.

This meant I got off the light rail just as Liz was getting off work, so we walked over together~ We got maybe 30 seconds into our walk before we were like "hey, is it drizzling?" followed up by a torrential downpour. At least the nuis were safely in a waterproof ita bag!

Eventually, the rain cleared up and we made it the last block and a half to the flower market!!! AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!


we got to see a truly stunning rainbow ♥
I managed to whip up little bows for their ears this afternoon, just in time for the festival~~~~~~~ I was honestly really excited to go this year, not just because it's a fun tradition we've fallen into, but also because it was this time last year that Liz and I had truly fallen for Kohaku & Madara in a like... "oh, oh, this is gon' be an important one" ship feels kinda way. We walked around talking about Madara's love of impulse performances at street festivals and just...idk it was really nice ;w; I love them (kohamada and Liz).

So!!!! Returning this year with my decked out kohamada nuis...very special to me ♥

After that, we got the ever-important lemon sticks - since Elio had never had one! - and walked around, picking out plants. Honestly, the rain cut some of the heat, leaving the weather basically perfect for an evening at a street festival :D

( further images from the festival!!! )

While we were eating dinner - still at the flower market, but slightly fancier street food because it's in a sorta bougie area - someone came up and complimented the dress I was wearing, and then we ended up chatting a ton. They just moved into the area from out in the suburbs and seem similarly nerdy, so hopefully we've managed to make another local friend!!!

I'm in sooooo much pain from all the walking around, but overall today was good *w* I'm also too tired to figure out how to end this properly, sooooo bye? XD

Getting fans for characters in enstars is a tedious task- it's something that just takes time, and there's really no way around that. I'm honestly impressed with how hard I've worked at it in the year I've been playing, but tbh in ENG it's not as much a grind as it is staying on top of autoplaying songs during the time between events. JP tho...since it's all manual play, it is a legit grind that you have to work at. You love blorbo? Prove it.

All of this is to say...I managed to get both Kohaku and Madara to rank B this week in JP, thanks to the double fans going on for Valentine's Day!!!!!!!




However, this was not without strife...and not just my on and off wrist pain from playing too much enstars XD Somehow, without any sort of planning on my part, both of them ended up being ONE FUCKING FAN AWAY from 50k. Like. It happened with Kohaku and I was like "gee what are the chances?" and went and ran some work to get him the last one. But then when it also happened with Madara, I couldn't help but laugh my ass of.


Like look at this. wtf guys. How could you do this to me XD
Anyway!!! That funny coincidence aside, I'm delighted to have gotten them this far!! They're both rank A in ENG (and well on their way to A+, once that becomes available), but JP feels like a bigger accomplishment because I had to do all that manually, babeeyyyy!!!!!!!

no I still don't have a job yes I know this sounds like peak unemployed behavior but I don't care I love them

Also, the TRIP album boxes have been rerunning in JP, and I managed to max out Kohaku and Madara from the Double Face one ;w; I'm still grinding out enough materials to fully unlock the cards, but I have them, and that's what matters :D

OH ALSO lmao I do have a real life!!! Yesterday was Elio's 30th birthday party and it was wonderful time. We went over to his apartment, everyone helped make dumplings together from scratch, and we watched some movies!!! Talladega Nights was particularly funny with friends; we were all just laughing and quoting it the whole way through.


of course the boys came to the birthday party- Elio's is the day before Kohaku's, so they're bday buddies! XD

Happy 2/2, aka Akechi Euthanasia Day!!! I took my akeshu ita bag to Costco to celebrate~


some "youths" - late teens/early 20s maybe?? - recognized what it was and were suitably impressed :D
Anyway! The household went to Costco today + brought Elio along, since he needed to stock up on groceries after being in NYC and Japan for the past few weeks. We ended up at a different one than usual, because it was closer to his apartment, but that meant everything felt like it was in different places and I hate change so I was stressed out ;w; Also, I've been battling a terrible headache all week, which didn't help. Despite all that, it was quite successful :D

Less successful: wig styling........

I bulked out the wig head, which was a huge pain I only defeated thanks to Liz's assistance, and then...it didn't fit on the new wig head stand.

AGGGHHHHHHHHHH

My nicer wig head fits just fine, so I didn't think to check the styrofoam one I was using before I jumped into it. idk I wanted to try it out on a $3 wig head instead of something nicer, and I guess I'm paying for it???

Sooooo I tried to wrap the rod that the wig head goes onto in paper towels to make it thick enough (hehe, thick), and instead it just shredded the inside of the wig head.

'kay.

I'm just gonna bulk out the nicer wig head, but I couldn't do it last night....I was too dejected ;w;

bluh bluh I'm taking it extra hard + I'm more exhausted than usual + terrible headache, so either I'm having yet another mono flareup or I'm about to be on my period, and I don't like either of those options >:O

uhhhhhh I also could ramble about enstars and the valentines events and the current events in jp and eng but as previously mentioned: headache :c

bwahahahahaaaa my icons are basically invisible now
Joke's on me for using minimalist white icons and making myself a pastel-ish sparkly wallpaper XD The other pages of my home screen are even worse, somehow.

Also not clear from screenshots: the lock screen is animated, because having an android phone is all about over the top customization~~~~


also, also: the macro lens in my phone slaps hard
Now that I can take pictures of all my fancy fountain pen inks, I will be unstoppable~~~~

uhhhhhhh I don't have much else to say, since it's been more of me laying around doing not much of anything :T Elio came over last night to work on some cosplay stuff with us and I made dinner, so that's an accomplishment. I made braised Chinese eggplants for the first time and they came out incredible!!! It was also relatively simple (even for a side dish) and H mart always has a good price on eggplants in general, which means I'm about to hyperfixate on making these fuckers for a bit.

That's about it :T I'm gonna try to get some writing done today, and maybe??? Job applications?????????????

Coming soon: finally playing d&d 3.5 again!!!!! 5th edition is great and all, but I was introduced through 3.5 and it'll always have a special place in my heart. Pat is gonna be DMing and it kiiiinda sounds like we're starting in Traverse Town XD

We haven't started playing yet; we're still in the character creation stage. Elio came over this evening for basically session 0, in which I realized that I uhhhhhh don't remember as much of 3.5 as I thought. Probably because I haven't played it since 2014? 2015???? It's been awhile, okay, life is hard. I'm playing a sorcerer, surprise surprise, and Liz couldn't decide between two different character ideas so they're playing two characters, because they're crazy (and I love them for it).

Also, we learned something very important: Genevieve is a dice gremlin XD She went RIGHT for the die once it was in front of her.


You'd never guess how difficult she can be from her cute face *w*

( click for more kitty pics )

It's my tumblr! XD I finished what I was working on last night, aka the impulsive new layout that I just had to do instead of anything responsible >>

Anyway!! I'm quite pleased with it; the flowers spin and it just looks super cool in general. I might add some text to the sidebar image later, but for now, I'm done looking at it.

ughhh I'm very tired >< I'm up relatively early because I'm driving Elio to Rockville for a medical thing, but that means I'm fussy ;w; I would like to still be sleeping plz. However, I gotta run and pick him up and then drive an hour into the DC suburbs...hell........

HELLO THIS IS ONLY OVER A WEEK LATE (and no promises about the rest of the weekend lmao) BUT HERE WE GO!!!

Started the day strong by skipping class, running a million errands, and desperately trying to finish cosplay in time!!!!! Liz worked from home for the second half of the day to keep me company while sewing and I managed to conquer the difficult part of Knives's sleeves~~~ I was so fucking tired but I did it :D

Anyway!!! Pat picked Elio up on his way home from work and brought him over, so he finally got to meet our kitties (which was exciting). We did some more sewing and packing until finally heading out (around 7:30-ish, aka way earlier than usual for us lmao). We did end up packing a sewing machine because Knives and Legato weren't done yet. Between props, costumes, food for the hotel room, and four people, our car was packed. Thankfully, it's only an hour drive, so we made decent time in a cramped space XD

Actually getting checked into our hotel room and getting our luggage up was another thing entirely...WAY more people show up on Thursday of katsu nowadays, and we weren't even at the con hotel; we were across the street. After a hellish wait and a fight for a cart, we did eventually get into our room and unpacked......however. We were on the 10th floor and only one of the elevators was working. I still had optimism at this point...I had hope that they might fix it before the weekend was up. MY MISTAKE.


there was a really funny notice at the front desk, tho XD the ghost of homestuck never truly leaves
We ended up heading over to the Gaylord to pick up badges, which ended up being a whole fiasco since Liz & Pat had to get panelist badges. Basically no one knew where the fuck to go for them???? We did eventually figure it out, but it involved a lot of running around after I was already wiped from multiple late nights of con crunch. It was so nice to back, though. Every year, Katsucon is a huge pain and stressful and etc etc etc, and I still keep going back because I love it despite all that ;w;

uhhhhhh we went back to the room and ate.......lunchables??? I don't remember us getting an actual meal, tbh. I was so fucking tired at this point, and we still had sewing to do. The rest of the evening was such a blur, and we had to wake up relatively early to get to Liz & Pat's panel.


good night from Knives~~~~~~

HI HELLO I WAS CONSUMED BY ENSEMBLE STARS FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS!!!! An event started with one of my new fave trash can sons and I have been glued to my phone XD I also went out with friends to celebrate Elio's birthday last night, which included hot pot and karaoke~~~ We went to a different karaoke place than originally planned and it ended up being SUPER nice, so that was awesome :D

uhhhhh yes that's everything in one short paragraph XD

OH YES KATSUCON IS UPON US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We managed to snag a hotel room in my fave hotel, the Hampton Inn across from the Gaylord, so we'll be staying right by the con for the first time in years. I think the last time we stayed this close was 2019???? I'm looking forward to it!! Plus, free breakfast at the hotel and convenient parking~ We're going down Thursday night, too, so that'll be nice.

It's extra nice because Liz & Pat are running a panel, and it ended up being scheduled for 12:30 pm on Friday. So it'll be done and out of the way but I am also VERY glad we aren't trying to drive down and present in the same day.

Also, Liz ordered fabric for our Knives & Legato cosplays on Friday and it got here today, which was super fast and I'm glad for it!!!! It's gonna be a crunch to get stuff done in time, but slightly less of a crunch than expected. My binder arrived today, too, and it's way easier to get into + comfier than any previous ones. I can actually wear it around without feeling miserable :D

I'm now 34!!!!

Anyway~ Liz is working from home today and Pat took off, so we're all vibing at the house :D We're going out for Korean BBQ with another friend later, which'll be fun.

uhhhh there are some very neat decorations, but since Liz is using the dining room table to work from home, I'm gonna take pics after they're done ;D