Up late last night playing Smallands with Dave, so while I woke up at like 7 this morning I also went back to sleep until 12:30. I did want to take today mostly down anyway, though, so that's alright.
In Smallands, we unlocked a new area of the map, which is very exciting. We've killed a couple baby birds (in the hopes that doing so would allow us to steal the tree they'd been living in but that didn't work) and found a source for reishi leather, which was our barrier to a lot of new stuff and upgrades. Also! Other tiny people! That want to kill us! It feels like we're leaving the tutorial area, which is crazy considering how much we've done in the game so far
As for today, I needed to be around to meet the guy taking our ruined couches away. We'd put them up on craigslist, and on the corner with a 'FREE' sign, but no one wanted them so they've been sitting out in the rain in the backyard for a couple months. ash hired a guy to come take them to the dump and was supposed to get here about 2, so at 1:30 I dragged them out of the backyard and onto the driveway, partly to be nice to the guy and partly because I didn't want him to damage the gate or our water pipes trying to get the couches past them. And then I hung out in the living room until around 4 when he actually showed up (which is expected behaviour for hiring a guy to come take your furniture to the dump). He was very friendly and we talked about snowboarding while he got the couches into his truck. Apparently he was living in the bay area and moved here not too long ago, which is common since the pandemic and the economy being in a shambles. Then, once here, he couldn't find any work so started his own one-man landscaping/etc business. He pointed out that our gutters are looking a little sketchy, which is a fair assessment and we've been meaning to get someone to come clean them so maybe we'll call him for that. He also offered to trim the enormous tree by our gate, but I don't think the property owners would like that
Meanwhile I'd gotten a package I've been waiting for -- my digimon watch (Vital Bracelet™) looks like this:
Screenshot 2025-11-18 at 22-37-31 vital bracelet be.png
The strap is pretty cheap quality, doesn't breathe well, weirdly big despite ostensibly being designed to be worn by Japanese children, it falls off easily due to the bad clasp design, and the holes are spaced in a way that makes it hard to get it to fit well. It's generally just obviously a semi-disposable children's toy, but there's a guy who sells replacement straps on etsy that I have been eyeing for ages and finally pulled the trigger on. I'd been waffling because he was sold out of the colour that I wanted and I was waiting to see if it would ever restock, but I have ended up getting a white strap, and also adapters to make the whole thing a little narrower and fit on my skinny gay ass wrists better
Screenshot 2025-11-18 at 22-43-16 1118252238.png
I'm going to reserve full judgement until I've been wearing it for a bit but like, obviously it's nicer than the original strap. It fits better, it's more secure, it's more comfortable, and hopefully my wrist won't sweat as much while I'm training my little man. The better fit means that the watch is reading my heartrate better, too, so it's also working better in general.
So after I got the straps switched out and did a little exercise to test it, I watched youtube for a while, and then when I went out to get dinner I also dug my old goat-horn water bottle out of the garage to wash. I've been meaning to do that for a while but knew that since it's been out in the garage for ages that it might not be in great condition and need some extra TLC to get it usable. Cleaning it was not that difficult, actually, but it is still not usable. It's always had a leak, and it still does but now the rubber (or whatever soft-plastic-material) seal on the lid is, uh, melting. So that's not something that I want to end up in my water, but I discovered that the store that makes them sells replacement lids!
It's supposed to be cloudy tomorrow, but not rainy, so I think I'd like to take the bike out if I can. We'll see