The Marci Rating System

Yesterday I was one of the day's lucky 10,000! Apparently, during the pandemic, a bunch of celebrities recreated the movie 'The Princess Bride' scene by scene?

The description says: "Serialized remake of 'The Princess Bride' told in short chapters featuring celebrities at home during quarantine."

So each 'chapter' has different people playing the characters (or sometimes they're legos or pets, lol). I only got about 15 minutes into it yesterday, but it was pretty fun! Definitely going on my 'things to do inside while it's hot out' list.

The Princess Bride: Home Movie (full) on youtube

I am nope-ing right out of this heat advisory. No thank you, I'm not interested at this time. Please put me on your do-not-call list.

Non-hot things I am looking forward to today:

*Cold pizza!
*Cold coffee!
*Cold electrolytes!

*I remembered about the funny lean in that one set of shelves, and didn't put it in my direct line of sight this year -- huzzah!

*I did NOT remember that one side of the small table is all dinged up, and that I should try to put that side facing the wall. It really wouldn't be that hard to turn the table around, but I haven't done it yet. Maybe that side wants to be out this year!

*You know what there really isn't a convenient space for? The giant (and heavy) air conditioner box. You know what I really don't like doing? Carrying the giant (and heavy) air conditioner box to a different floor to store it. (haha and it's not like there's some magical better storage space on a different floor.)

*But also you know what I really appreciate having when it's hot? A giant (and heavy) air conditioner in the window, keeping me from losing my shit every time it gets over 80F degrees. Thanks, air conditioner! I really hope you still work this year!

*Now that the initial rearranging has been done in both rooms, the next stage is 'live with this and see what works.' Inevitably, there's some weird snags that need to be worked out, but the big work is done! NOW it's the warm season!

Predicted high temp next Tuesday: 88F

Predicted low temp next Thursday: 32F

Me, looking at those numbers: so, I guess it's time to put my winter boots away?

(*"away," lol -- I moved them about six inches to the right, so that instead of being NEXT to the storage cube, they're inside it)

(the REAL question is 'should I put away the long underwear and get out the shorts,' and the answer is probably yes, but that seems like a LOT of work somehow, even though again they are actually IN THE SAME ROOM. I think. Like, 80% sure the summer clothes are here somewhere)

Yesterday I was out for a walk and I saw a shrub starting to leaf out! (Okay, it wasn't quite leaves yet. Some kind of buds? idk I'm not a botanist, and I didn't look it up to fact check anything.)

My first thought was: huzzah, the plants are back!

My second thought was: oh, I'm probably allergic to that

This week has been an interesting case study of 'flexible interpretations of the in-office rules.' No one wants to get fired for not showing up on a required office day, but also no one wants to get in a car accident driving on icy roads because they were trying to drive in a snowstorm.

Today I'm testing out the 'what if I worked from home for two hours, then drove to the office for the rest of the day' strategy. I have not checked with my boss about this. (But they're 100% remote, and generally they don't care what we're doing with our office time as long as we're getting our work done and no one is complaining to them about us. Also someone else on the team did a similar thing back in December, so there's a precedent.)

Audiobook update: I started listening to 'The Long Game' (Rachel Reid, aka the hockey boys book 6), and I'm currently about 5 hours in. This one is the longest book so far -- nearly 13 hours, which puts it well above my personal audiobook sweet spot of 7-9 hours.

[Note: Is there a fandom consensus on spoiler tagging? Like, the book came out in 2022, but the second season of the tv show hasn't happened yet (2027, maybe?). Are there people waiting for the tv series and trying to avoid spoilers?]

It's fun to learn what things that pop up a lot in fanfics are accurately from the book, and which things are general fannish agreement. But I wound up taking a break yesterday and listening to the start of Alessa Thorn's 'Ink Sworn' instead. The comparison is basically this:

*The Long Game: characters are stressed because they're really great at the sex part of their relationship and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also pro-sports is dangerous and a pressure cooker even at the best of times

*Ink Sworn: characters are stressed because they're really great at turning into giant fuck-off dragons and doing magic and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also there's a dangerous evil wizard or something

So, not that different, really! Crucially, 'Ink Sworn' is only about 8 hours long. I KNOW WHAT I LIKE.

Time to go have an outdoor adventure!

*Good news! I made it safely there (the car spa) and back again, and now my car has snow tires!

*Less fantastic news! I'm definitely going to need the snow tires, because I'm supposed to go to the office today, and the plowing situation in the parking lot here is currently 'the driving lane was cleared at some point, everything else we'll do later.' Which is fine! It's just that I'm gonna need to drive through that 'everything else' to get to the driving lane. (lol so many memories of the apartment parking lot after a snowstorm...)

*Anyway, work is work. Our team just got moved to a different team (temporarily?!? I guess?!?) for reasons unknown. The reasons we've been given make very little sense, and it's hard to know if that's because they're untruthful or just, you know, corporate.

*We're supposed to be doing our year-end "self-evaluations" immediately, which means I've been sorting all the stuff I planned to catch up on in December into two piles: 'hurry up and do it before the evaluation so I can say it's done,' and 'safe to say it's on track to meet the 2025 goal.'

*Yeah.

*But coffee!

*Yay!

Time to get serious about prepping for November writing!

Haha just kidding, it is never time to get serious. It IS time to re-listen to 'Exit Strategy,' so I have more than just a vague recollection of what happens.

Other things it might be time for today:

*using the office lap blanket

*wearing the hat that keeps my ears warm

*COFFEE (two coffees??? in-office days always have the option of TWO COFFEES, just to keep things exciting)