Author: Cassandra

New Desserts, New Customers

Some of you may recall that I wrote about a game called Just Desserts a couple years back. For those of you who don’t, I’d advise you read that post here before continuing with this one. Why? Because today I’m talking about the expansions!

Just Desserts currently has two expansions: Just Coffee, and Better With Bacon. Yeah, I know, ew. Believe me, Mom and I spent plenty of time making faces at cards like Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes and Maple Bacon Donut.

Customer named Kevin receiving his favorite dessert, Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes.

The expansions don’t change the mechanics of the game; what they do is add two new ingredients (coffee and bacon), and two new families, bringing the count up to 9. Each has 4 customers, and six new desserts. For each expansion pack, there’s one dessert that doesn’t have the expansion’s special ingredient in it, and a customer who’s favorite is that one dessert. Which makes sense — none of the other families have one ingredient entirely in common, after all.

All of the expansion cards laid out. Top row, left to right: Coffee Cake, Tiramisu, Mocha Cheesecake, Coffee With A Donut, Chocolate Espresso Beans, Coffee Ice Cream, and Cup of Coffee. Second row, left to right: Conceptual Artist, favorite of Coffee Cake; the Movie Star, favorite of Tiramisu; Mr. Jitters, favorite of Chocolate Espresso Beans; and Doctor Coffee, favorite of Anything With Coffee. Third row, left to right: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Chocolate Dipped Bacon, Bacon Ice Cream, Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes, Maple Bacon Donut, Bacon Chip Cookies, and Candied Bacon. Last row, left to right: The Vegetarian, favorite of Chocolate Dipped Strawberries; Kevin, favorite of Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes; The Farmer, favorite of Bacon Chip Cookies, and Abraham Bacon, favorite of Anything With Bacon.

The one thing I think is really different with the expansions is that they each have a character who has their favorite listed as “Anything With Bacon” or “Anything With Coffee,” which allows players a way to use a single-ingredient card on its own (not possible with any other customers) or to use something with extra ingredients and still get the tip for a favorite.

Doctor Coffee getting Tiramisu, satisfying his requirements of Anything With Coffee.

For some extra fun and opinionated commentary (because seriously, why do people put bacon in desserts) I’d suggest getting the expansions (Just Coffee, Better With Bacon) to add to your base deck, or buying them all together at the Looney Labs online store. It’s worth it!

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New Year, Same Cats

This week’s post features Zuko being adorable, because, well, Zuko is adorable, and I think while the “new year, new you” idea is well-intentioned, it can be a lot of pressure and lead to a lack of constancy as you try to fix all your problems at once. Sooo, here’s some pictures of Zuzu curling up with Diane and bothering Arwen to remind you that it’s ok if you’re not setting loads of new goals right now or making major life changes based on an arbitrary date — Zuko sure isn’t!

Zuko and Diane, curled up together.
Arwen inside a cardboard fort with cat head-shaped hole, head sticking out the left side as Zuko sits on top of the box, facing the same direction.
Zuko was definitely hunting Arwen here, much to her chagrin.
Arwen and Zuko in the same arrangement in the cardboard fort as the previous image, but now from a corner angle instead.
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MALINDA

If you haven’t heard of Malinda Kathleen Reese, then you, my friend, are missing out. Who is she? Well…

Malinda runs two YouTube channels, one of which is MALINDA (hence why the post’s title is in all caps). This channel has a wide range of fantastic music, all of which I’d highly recommend (even the stuff I haven’t heard yet; I’m sure it’s great) but there are a few in particular that stand out as examples. First, there’s how I was introduced to her content: “Don’t Make Me,” a music video with excellent acting and choreography about a newly-wedded princess whose prince betrays her. The prince is played by Thomas Sanders, who’s also awesome and should probably get a post of his own at some point.

A more solemn selection is the song she wrote about quarantine, featuring her likewise talented parents, or, for something light and fun, you could check out “The Song of the Puffin.” In addition to a hilariously random song about puffins, this video includes some of the process of creating the song, which I found fascinating. It was a group effort with her fans, so an unorthodox means of songwriting for sure, but lots of fun to follow along with through the first 5 or 6 minutes of the video. (If you just want to listen to the song part, well, your loss, but the time signature for that is 6:07.)

And then there’s Malinda’s other channel, Twisted Translations (formerly known as Translator Fails), where she runs the script for the video through Google Translate too many times and presents the resulting madness. A good one is the Google Translate Explains How To Vote video from this September. The election may be over, but the translator fails will never cease to be amusing. She also does Google Translate songs, like “You’re Welcome” from Moana, which can lead to some interesting alternate lyrics. You’ll see what I mean.

While those translations are the meat of the channel’s content, what really sells it is her performance, with Google Translate Malinda’s over-the-top confidence in the nonsense being articulated while Real Malinda listens, providing a series of confused and downright exasperated reactions that resonate with my soul.

I could fangirl further about how awesome Malinda is, but, honestly, just– just go watch her videos, people; her work needs no further pitch than that.

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Small Miracles

Yes, yes, I know, you’ve gotten a lot of cat photos lately. But this week had some incredibly adorable pictures. I mean, look at their wittle faces:

More impressive, though, are the next two pictures. For reference, June was by far the most opposed to our newest addition (Zuko), and, though they’re on pretty “just let me pretend you don’t exist” terms now, she’s still a bit of a holdout. Seeing them willingly interacting is pretty rare, and catching it on camera is even rarer. Hence why this week’s post is justified, because awwww.

June is to the camera's left of Zuko, who is on the far side of Diane from the camera. They are all curled up and slightly overlapping.
June is bathing Zuko on the couch.
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Counting

When you have four cats, successfully keeping track of all of them can be… challenging. So this is just a quick chronicle of my such efforts after I woke up on Friday. Yes, I’m just making up an excuse to post more cat photos. Are you really going to complain?

Starting space: bedroom. Hey, look! Arwen’s here!

That’s 1! I wonder where the other cats are…

Second stop, the kitchen, to find food, because it’s not like Cat 1 is moving anywhere anytime soon. Might as well pop my head into the living room; see if anyone’s there.

2, 3, 4! I guess counting is easier during nap time, huh?

As a bonus, here’s a picture from the next day of all four together:

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The Sky

Pretty much what it says on the label. The sky is beautiful, I’ve spent an excessive amount of time staring at it lately, I took some pictures, here are the highlights.

Caption: Sunset from the back yard on Wednesday.
Caption: Sunset from the front yard on Thursday.
Caption: Fading light post-sunset from the back yard on Thursday.
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Flavor: Blue

This is sort of a random mini-rant, but it was amusing (befuddling) enough to be worth sharing, so… on with the post!

I tried blue cream soda last week. And it was pretty good! But I have a few questions. Primarily, how can a soda have “natural and artificial flavors” when the flavor is “blue?”

I mean, at least now I understand what Percy Jackson meant about blue food now — this tastes like regular cream soda, just bluer. “What does ‘bluer’ taste like?” you wonder. I’m sorry to say I really have no idea how to explain that, or even how it’s tasteable, but apparently blue is both a color and a flavor, and I think that’s hilarious.

The mysteries of soda flavoring…

Glass bottle of soda, very blue liquid inside. Large print: "Frostie's Blue Cream Soda." Smaller print: "Natural and Artificial Flavored."
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Breathe

This year has been a lot. Pandemic, protests, election… and it’s not over. There’s still battles to be fought. There probably always will be, to be honest.

Just remember: you can’t fight if you don’t take care of yourself, first. So give yourself permission to breathe, to take a moment and rest so you can keep carrying the banner. Whether that fight is politics, finances, family or your job… breathe.

Very calming image of a waterfall.

(Note: I definitely didn’t take this picture, but I have no clue who did. Credit to… Pinterest, I guess.)

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