Balls!

"Balls!" is one of the common household curses.

Tomorrow, 4/28, is Ed Balls day.

Yesterday a number of Belovedest's coworkers rented a nearby rink for some fun with ice, giant spatulas, and orange foam balls. One of the non-playing attendees (there were a lot of boyfriends and husbands along, and most of them played) brought a #1 sign and pompoms. (I just brought hot tea and wore my cloak.) I have Thoughts for next time, if the next time is a team sport.

I've got a card for that!

A combination of 1 low-effort thing: the 5 cards, impending chemotherapy, and finding that almost all the communication cards I saw on Etsy were much too simple for my specific needs, started me down the rabbit hole of making my own deck.

I figured that someone would probably ask me how I was doing, and I should have a card naming some of my likely emotions. I pondered. I brainstormed. I ... ran out of good ideas and started adding in-jokes.

I feel...

pleased	sad
complicated	scared
hopeful	weird
Existential dread	Stared too long into the grouse

Card 38

A long time ago, sithjawa and I had a conversation about a magazine clipping Dad sent me. If you stare too long into the grouse... (Longer ago than that, but, you know, sometimes we don't save our chat logs.) Deep abyss is deep. Sharp grouse is sharp.

So the next two cards in my deck...

currently personal use only and if I ever want to sell it I'll have to buy licensing rights to one of the ideal images

[Full card image of large, aggressive capercaillie, staring right into the camera. His eyebrows are red, tail spread, beak open and ready to start pecking. Think a smallish black turkey, but super angry.]
Card 39

[the same image, smaller]
The capercaillie is a large, aggressive bird in the grouse family. This capercaillie is Not Amused.
Card 40