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How do!

This, is a thread for general positivity. A place to celebrate our own little wins, and when even they might be thin on the ground, a reminder that they do exist.

And they don’t even need to be all that little. But little will do. All I ask is that participants don’t bring anyone else down, or try to belittle anyone’s cause for celebration. Life tends to be a lot tougher than we expected it to be, and there’s little gain in hashing the next fellow’s mellow.

As is tradition, I’ll kick us off. What follows isn’t intended to act as a benchmark though, it’s just my recent Little Win.

This week, I got 100% on a QA at work. Had a bit of a run of less than 100%, so I needed this boost. That it came from a particularly irritating case, and of a type I don’t normally deal with, a glowing endorsement of my efforts was very well welcome. Because being good at your job, and thinking you’re good at your job aren’t always the same thing.

And a lesser Little Win to expand the tone? I also made a Madras Curry from scratch this week, and it turned out really well. Added more Fenugreek this time and that brought a really pleasing savoury depth

Right, everyone else’s turn! Nothing off limits provided it’s within Dakka’s usual rules.

Someone thought my jokes were funny. First time in a decade or so.

Also finished a 700 word Hard Boiled/Noir flash fiction piece for a contest... anyone want to read it and give me a critique or two?

Not a bad week.

I built a fence, when I was LARPing as a rancher.

The other weekend, hosted a successful Christmas Crafternoon.

We made a bunch of scented candles and baubles. Everyone got involved, everyone enjoyed. Which was nice and festive.

We just got a new mattress as an early Christmas present to ourselves. Unfortunately I appear to have buggered my back helping the delivery guys brute force it up the stairs…

Hah! My Battletech Kickstarter stuff is finally on its way. 6 months late, and accompanied by great irritation, but hopefully that will fade when the opening dopamine hit kicks in.

Got all my Christmas Wrapping done.

All that remains is a last minute visit to Sainsbury’s/Asda to get the Ponies their special Christmas Dinner, stuff that in the Hamper, then its bombs away Sunday when I go to dog sit.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Got all my Christmas Wrapping done.

All that remains is a last minute visit to Sainsbury’s/Asda to get the Ponies their special Christmas Dinner, stuff that in the Hamper, then its bombs away Sunday when I go to dog sit.

28....29...30


__________

Another minor win, my buddy says he got me some GW stuff for Christmas, but won't tell me what it is... the bum!

I won a game of Lords of Vegas this evening!
And to top it off I won it decisively enough that we didn't even need to officially count the points.

I rarely win this particular game.

Cleaned up a huge stash of old documents left around the office. The telework employees don't bother doing it because they're only in the office once a week.

I found stuff from 2009, absolutely ancient for the type of work we do.

It's nice to have everything clean and organized.

Paid off my Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit freeing up 1700 and splitting that to pay off two loans by Feb 2025. Disregard the 2024 the Ram 1500 CRW 4X4 TRX in front my house.

Got all our stuff packed and emptied the house just in time for loading the truck to take it all to Portugal.

In addition, my wife's naturalization process which got last-minute dropped in bureaucratic limbo due the move was saved by one of said bureaucrats who although she called back late did so because instead of just making stuff actually bothered to look up the actual rules and found out that it was possible after all.

All hail the good bureaucrats!

I have finally had a not-full trash bin for the first time in 14 months.

I got divorced last year from a semi-hoarder. She just bought, and kept, random stuff we never used. After she moved out, I upgraded our collection bin to the largest one available (120-gallon capacity). Now, on my own I average a single 13-gallon bag of trash per week. In the 14 months she's been out of the house I have been stuffing that 120-gallon bin well past capacity, taking a bag or two with me to work and putting it in the dumpster, AND about every other week sneaking out at night to stealth a bag into the neighbors' bins.

This was the first week in over 14 months I only had my own trash.

Got a new TV since the old one broke. :(

And now our second day on the road as homeless vagabonds.

Bran Dawri wrote:
And now our second day on the road as homeless vagabonds.

Are you #Vanlife?

Or is it something less fun, and more depressing?



Gifts all wrapped!

No, we sold our house in the Netherlands and are on our way to Portugal where we're going to buy our new house, but the formal handover won't be until after Christmas, so we're technically homeless right now.

Bran Dawri wrote:
No, we sold our house in the Netherlands and are on our way to Portugal where we're going to buy our new house, but the formal handover won't be until after Christmas, so we're technically homeless right now.

That's the good homeless... the other way, as much as it puts your life into perspective, is a whole lot less fun.

I’ve lived the bad homeless. And it’s not much fun.

And even though it was the bad homeless?

It wasn’t the awful homeless. At the literal end of the day? If my friends couldn’t put me up? Still had keys to the shop, so at least I had a roof over my head.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’ve lived the bad homeless. And it’s not much fun.

And even though it was the bad homeless?

It wasn’t the awful homeless. At the literal end of the day? If my friends couldn’t put me up? Still had keys to the shop, so at least I had a roof over my head.

It's good to know you have friends. It's one of the best things in life.

I can imagine. If it had been the bad kind I wouldn't have been posting here methinks.

And yes. Having friends is a good thing.

I've got a 3 week old so everything mundane is a little win at the minute. Managed to get 5 hours sleep which was lovely..

Just focus on the fact that whatever horrible thing the little tyke is imposing on you is just a phase. It does get better

Spending quality time with the Nephloof over the next few days. And he’s been super good so far. Lots of snoozing, lots of fusses and playtime.

 Flinty wrote:
Just focus on the fact that whatever horrible thing the little tyke is imposing on you is just a phase. It does get better

Forgot the terrible two's

I found a cool new avatar which fits my two army loves together (an Adeptus Custodes Mechanicus), which I will use after the December holidays are over.

Also, I found out that the local shop plays AT/Li and Kill Team...

 Jihadin wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Just focus on the fact that whatever horrible thing the little tyke is imposing on you is just a phase. It does get better

Forgot the terrible two's

I have a 3 1/2 year old who's much harder to live with than when she was 2.

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Just focus on the fact that whatever horrible thing the little tyke is imposing on you is just a phase. It does get better

Forgot the terrible two's

I have a 3 1/2 year old who's much harder to live with than when she was 2.

Yeah that was a shock to the system. You hear so much about the Terrible Twos, but nothing beyond that. I remember lamenting it and expressing relief that it was nearly over, and my parents saying "Yeah, it's the Terrible Threes next." I'm sorry, WTF??? Looking back now, it all went by in the blink of an eye though...

I'm quite into baking cookies and cakes from time to time and recently got the family recipe for a special cake from my grandma (so it stays in the family). I made it for Christmas but the first try was a bit off and the butter-creme came out too soft. But after an hour on the cold balcony while we had lunch it solidified and became much better. Also my family said the taste was on point.

It may not be much, but it means a lot to me

Kind of a Little Win?

Last night, Dallas my Nephloof decided eating some wallpaper was a swell idea. And it….kind of was?

His tender ministrations weren’t desirable, but he did reveal hitherto unknown Black Mould.

So once he was on his bed for being a bad doggy? I stripped back what I could by hand, took a photo and submitted the issue to the letting agency, then went at the mould with some handy Mould Spray. What was exposed is dealt with, and now I’m going to press for the wallpaper to be stripped back to reveal the extent of the issue, so it can be properly dealt with.

Goodish Boy.