Fun with minor concussions

In the age of pandemic, the hamster ball party rentals are doing a brisk business. To celebrate a 12th birthday, the middle schoolers crashed around in plastic bubbles, occasionally getting upended and kicking their feet in the air until someone came over and rescued them. Leif managed to make it through the battle arena before taking off the bubble, running to catch a football, and tripping face-first into the turf, concussing himself. He'll be joining a target-based school sport instead of a contact-based one until he learns to stop traveling across the ground on his nose.

Leif is the hamster second from right

My mother has lived another year, sticking it to the NICU doctors who told her parents to say goodbye to her as a 3lb preemie in 1959. It is a day for shrimps and cakes.

A homemade cake, even a bad one, is a sign that someone loves you. I am not a skilled cake decorator, but I can make a cake from scratch that tastes like someone loves you. This year my mother gets a devil's food cake with an elderflower glaze, chocolate buttercream, Italian buttercream piping, and chocolate covered raspberries on top. 

and it looks like a spider-eyed monster, but WHO CARES

I'm happy with it.

This week the library opened up for computer users, and they immediately began squeezing through the security gates and prying open the automatic doors before we could unlock them, smashing their faces in the crack while I told them to back up, put their masks on, and wait for me to finish the usage spiel. One hour! That includes bathroom breaks! No coughing!

HELLO LIBRARY I AM HERE FOR THE YOUTUBES

I have been herding people around, sanitizing workstations, and picking piles of books for people. Yesterday, as I ran by with a stack of comics, someone pulled up and yelled, "HEY, DO YOU WORK HERE?" I stopped and looked down at myself. 

No, I just dress like this OKAY?

It's been fine, people are happy to see us. I sat on my little chair during the slower moments and read the new Hunger Games book. It was good.


No hunger at home, though; the banana trees have finally decided they're ready. We've got three of these, and the lychees are almost ready. In 5 years, I still haven't figured out how to preserve lychees. We just let the neighbors rob us until they're gone. Should work on that.

Painting update: I don't have time to paint, and my model is still being disagreeable. By the time I get this thing blocked out, it'll have an adult head on a kitten's body. 

Maybe there's a prize category for "wtf happened with this one".