torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-24 10:12 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Today I had a meeting about one aspect of the upcoming system change that led us to discover something major that IT had totally misunderstood. Me and the other non-IT guy were pretty freaked out about it, especially when the guy leading the meeting kept insisting that this was the way the new system works and there is 100% no way that it could be changed, and also kept insisting that all of us were in the wrong for not having realized this before because of course it works that way, not the way we expected it to work. But in the end it turns out that the system can work the way we need it to work, and also that previous mockups show the fields we need, so I don't know where it went wrong between then, but I'm glad that we discovered this misunderstanding now and can fix it. Very glad that I am working on this project now, too, because there is just too much of a disconnect from the IT side, since none of them understand anything about how a retail operation actually works or what we need the system to do. They just know how the systems work, but not the reason we need them to work a certain way. (And they were supposed to learn more about the workings, but still have not.)

2. We had a nice evening at Disneyland. Especially nice after a stressful afternoon at work!

3. Chloe knows the cutest poses.

torachan: aradia from homestuck (aradia)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-24 10:02 pm
Entry tags:

2025 Disneyland Trip #63 (9/24/25)

We haven't been to the parks for about a week and a half since Carla wasn't feeling well, but since we usually go so frequently it felt like we hadn't been in ages lol.

Read more... )
torachan: my glitch character (glitch)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-23 08:50 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Got my hair cut this morning. I feel like I just got it cut, but somehow it has been a whole month. As muggy as it's been, I've definitely been feeling it the past few days, even though my hair is very short, even when it's needing a cut. (Sadly, my hair is so thin these days that very short is the only thing I can do that doesn't look terrible.)

2. My afternoon was basically just a string of meetings, but I actually didn't really have much else on the to-do list, since I am still waiting for others to pass things back to me, so that worked out fine.

3. Carla got another couple boxes of the Spider-man blind box lego figures and this time got all the ones we were missing! We still ended up with a ton more dupes, though, so now I am offering these ones as well as these ones if anyone wants. Totally free to anyone in the US, just let me know.

4. Molly loves that top corner of my bed so much. It's her favorite.

torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-22 05:53 pm

Daily Happiness

1. I decided to stay home today. Pretty much all the tasks I've been working on are now at the step of waiting for someone else to get back to me so I can do something else, so if I'd gone to work it would have been sending out reminders and poking around a bit of stuff here and there, and I just didn't feel like it. Even though taking three weeks off earlier this year knocked down my PTO balance enough that I don't need to worry about it maxing out immediately, it will max out before we take our planned trip next year, so I've got to use some days here and there to knock it down a bit more anyway.

2. Since it's not a usual day off, I didn't have any usual chores or errands on my to-do list and mostly just read and played Donky Kong Bananza (which I am still enjoying a lot). I did take a midday walk, which was much nicer in our neighborhood than at work, since we actually have a lot of shade if I stick to certain streets, which I was able to do since I was not going anywhere specific, just walking to walk.

3. I finished up another puzzle this morning, the first of those new Disney ones we got. It turns out they have rounded corners, which I wasn't expecting. Carla did the whole border, so I didn't actually have to deal with them, but since they're just a bit curved, I don't think it probably makes too much of a difference in difficulty.



4. Ollie's such a sweet guy.

torachan: arale from dr slump dressed in a penguin suit and smiling (arale penguin)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-21 08:14 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. For lunch today we walked up to the neighborhood independent market, which does grilling in the parking lot on weekends during the summer. Well, I guess summer is officially over as they were not set up today. :( We'd been hoping to get a tri-tip sandwich, but I guess we'll have to wait for next summer. Instead we went a few doors down to the restaurant I went to yesterday, and got another grilled cheese, this time (since we'd already been in the mood for a hearty beef sandwich) a grilled cheese with short ribs and pickled onions. It was so good! So we're two for two on that place now.

2. I had some nice snuggle time with Ollie this morning. Actually both yesterday morning and this morning. He just hopped up on my lap and napped for a while. *_*

3. This is a new box. Exactly the same shape as two other boxes we already have in the living room, but everyone is super into it, so I guess we can't get rid of this one now lol.

torachan: sakaki from azumanga daioh holding a cat, with the text "I like cats" in Japanese (sakaki)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-20 08:19 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. It was pretty nice weather today. Mostly overcast and cool. Verrrrrry muggy, though. I took two walks this morning, one around lunchtime, and one this evening, and only the final one didn't leave me drenched.

2. Carla is mostly over her cold (kept testing negative the whole time, so feel pretty confident saying it was not covid) and I still haven't come down with anything, so I am tentatively considering myself safe. I do think the ventilation in the summer makes a big difference.

3. We got lunch from a new-to-us restaurant nearby. It's a place we've walked by for years and just never actually checked out. One recent time when we were walking by we looked at the menu (it's a brunch and lunch place, mostly sandwiches and salads) and everything looked really good, so we decided we should make an effort to actually go there. Carla didn't feel like going out for lunch, so I walked up there and got a sandwich to bring home for us. It was a grilled cheese with fig jam and was soooooo good. Definitely want to check out more from their menu.

4. Kind of disappointing morning at the farmers market as the place I get fruit leather from had no fruit leather (though they did have watermelon lemonade, which had been sold out last week by the time I got there since I went late) and the almond stand was not there at all, which was especially annoying as I am fully out of their delicious orange almond butter so if I want toast this week I'll have to have jam (which is fine, as we actually have a ton of jam that should get used up, but the almond butter is more filling). Hopefully they're back next week. I did get some new tasty desserts, though, including passionfruit bars (like lemon bars but with passionfruit).

5. Tuxie enjoying the shade this morning.

torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-20 05:25 pm
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Weekly Reading

Currently Reading
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science
32%. Middle grade book written by Kate McKinnon of SNL. Three sisters have been kicked out of every etiquette school in town and are about to be shipped off to one in Austria when they get an invite to a new etiquette school they'd never heard of, which turns out to be a school for young mad scientists in disguise. It's amusing so far.

Lone Women
6%. Historical horror about a young black woman who has to flee after her parents' deaths, with a mysterious trunk in tow. I've only just started but it seems very interesting so far.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
19%.

Recently Finished
The Murder Next Door
I enjoyed this. Definitely will read the sequel.

A Gallery of Rogues
This was fun. I hope there are eventually more books in the series.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
I really liked this! And it was great as an audiobook, too, read by Kate Reading who also does the Lady Sherlock books. The daughters of Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde team up with the daughters/creations of Dr Moreau, Victor Frankenstein, and Dr Rappaccini (from a story I was not familiar with), along with Holmes and Watson, to solve a string of murders in Whitechapel. This was so much fun and there are two more books in the series that I'm really looking forward to reading.

The Phantom of New York
Very mediocre middle grade book about a boy who moves into a hotel in New York in a sort of half-hearted witness protection program after his father discovers his boss is doing shady things. The boy eventually finds out that he is descended from the Phantom of New York, a superhero from a hundred years ago who protected the city. Not going to bother with the rest of the series.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru vol. 1-2
Cute high school f/f manga about a girl who starts dating another girl in student council, despite feeling like she doesn't really understand love. These were on a free promo on Amazon Japan, but I'm not sure I was that into it that I need to get the rest of the volumes (eight in total).

Bibliomania
Horror manga about a girl who gets sucked into a book that will kill everyone once it has sucked in 666 people (she's 400 something). There is no way out except to go through each page of the book to the beginning, but that causes mutations and eventually death the closer you get. She chooses that anyway. Interesting twist towards the end, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. It was okay.
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Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-19 09:17 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. It's the weekend! And I was able to come home early today, too, which was nice. A lot of the tasks I was working on this week are now in the hands of the IT team for the next step, so while I had a few little things I could do today, I just went home after my afternoon meeting around three or so.

2. We got two multipacks of the new Across the Spider-Verse Lego minifigs in the mail today. Carla's had some good luck with the last few sets of blind box minifigs and got hardly any dupes (I think one set was actually no dupes at all) but this time we did get a few.

If anyone wants these figures, I will ship them anywhere in the US for free. Just let me know.



3. Gemma loves being in Carla's desk chair when it's pushed under the desk. It's so secret.

torachan: ryu from kimi ni todoke eating ramen (ramen)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-18 09:07 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. We were supposed to get a lot of rain, but that seems to have blown over. We did get a little rain last night (I was awake in bed to hear it, which is always lovely) and it was raining again this morning when I went out for my walk, so instead of walking around the neighborhood and getting wet (I did take an umbrella but it would still be blowing in from the sides) I walked over to the parking structure across the street and just did laps in there for about the same distance I usually walk.

2. Just one more day before the weekend!

3. We've been getting some really delicious grapes lately. They're called autumn crisp, which is not a variety I'd heard of before, but they live up to their name. Suuuuuuper crisp, which is just how I like my grapes, and a nice sweet flavor (I don't like them too sour).

4. Oh, too sleep as easy as a kitty!

torachan: karkat from homestuck headdesking (karkat headdesk)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-17 08:24 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I got my covid and flu shots today. Since I didn't have any meetings or other time-sensitive things this morning at work, I just stopped in the same medical offices where I'd made my appointment for next week and asked if they were doing walk-ins, too, and they were. Had to wait about ten minutes or so, but otherwise it was over pretty quickly. Carla hasn't been able to get hers yet because she's sick. D: (First test said not covid, but she's going to keep testing throughout the duration to make sure. So far I am not showing any signs of catching it, but we'll see. It is hard to avoid each other in our smallish house, though at least since it's summer all the windows and doors are open and the fans going all the time, so there's a lot of air circulation.)

2. Molly just loves this scratcher/ball toy. Sometimes for the scratcher, once in a while for the ball, but mostly just to lie on. It's apparently very comfy.

torachan: a cartoon bear eating a large sausage (magical talking bear prostitute)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-16 09:04 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. My knee is sore today but the other aches and pains I had last night when trying to get to sleep seem to have gone away in the morning.

2. I had two meetings today and both were cancelled!

3. I made an appointment to get my covid shot next Monday, which was the soonest I could get an appointment, though I might drop in tomorrow on the way to work and see if they have any walk-in availability (it said limited walk-ins online), as there is a location offering them close to work.

4. Ollie has such impressive eyebrows.