Tag: dad

Thanksgiving Adventures!

The folks and I decided that we had so much fun last year at Amy’s for thanksgiving, we’d ask if she’d have us back again this year. She (foolishly?) said yes, so we’re back in Minnesota again.

Amy decided that we’d have roast chicken this year instead of roast turkey, which was just fine with me. Turkey is OK, but chicken is very yummy. Especially the dark meat. So we developed a plan of attack for the meal. Cheeseball made and pies baked on Wednesday night, everything else on Thursday morning.

The cheeseball went smoothly (my usual “Thanksgiving Cheeseball”) but Amy had some issues with the pie crust. They were using white whole wheat flour and it didn’t work as well with Rachel’s mom’s pie crust recipe as regular white flour did. And then Amy discovered that her sweet potatoes had some bad spots she’d not planned on. Still, by the time we headed for bed, her pie and the apple pie that Rachel had made both looked wonderful. Pre-prep was done. On to Thursday!

This morning we lazed about some before I started on the rolls. I found a nice recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website and decided to give it a try. Once the dough was proofing, I turned on the oven to a low heat to get things started.

Amy started by chopping up the root vegetables for roasting (with Rachel cleaning) and I got the potatoes cut for future mashed potatoes. Then mom and I cut up the ingredients for a Pear Cranberry Chutney recipe she’d gotten from WeightWatchers. Since Cilantro tastes of soap to me, we substituted parsley for it. The recipe was claimed to go well with roast chicken. (They were right!)

Amy then started prepping the chicken – she’d found a nice recipe online (I think this was it) that looked pretty easy and that she had ingredients for. She discovered that the chicken wasn’t as thawed as it originally looked, but she took care of that hurdle only to discover a bigger hurdle – the oven hadn’t gotten any warmer than 150F since we first turned it on. The root vegetables weren’t getting roasted and the chicken wasn’t going to get so either. Eep!

Dad checked in the basement to see if any of the circuit breakers had flipped (Amy has an electric oven) but flipping them off & on did nothing for the oven. The burners worked just fine. Thankfully, Rachel’s apartment isn’t too far away, so she and I bundled up the rolls, chicken, and root veg for a trip over to her place. There, we baked everything and played with Charlotte (her kitty) and our phones (we both have Galaxy SIIIs).

The chicken reached it’s proper temp with 4 minutes to go on the timer, so we bundled everything back up and returned to the folks and Amy. Turns out the chicken was dripping red (gah – the recipe LIED) so some zapping in the microwave took care of the final cooking. While Rachel and I were baking, Amy was making the rest of the food. She had brussel sprouts going in one skillet and kale in another. And I got to mash the potatoes when I got back. Then Amy made a gravy (with mom’s help) of the drippings from the chicken.

Lunch was late (or supper was early) but it was simply wonderful. Despite the setbacks, the food was delicious. The rolls were declared “even better that my mom’s” by someone whose identity I will protect, just in case… 😉 So I think we’ll be keeping that recipe around for the future.

I am thankful for so much more than I can type, but for now I’ll just say that I’m thankful for the family I was born into and the friends that I have chosen in my life. We rock!

Summer Vacation thus far

Although midsummer eve isn’t even here yet, I’m well in the thrall of summer. Mom and I have gone on a number of bike rides in the Troy area, the latest one was 12.8 miles. I spent time at the Lake with and . I went to the Troy Strawberry Festival, the Lost Creek Antique & Garden Show, and the Yellow Springs Street Fair. I’ve read several books. And I’ve vegged out on World of Warcrack. So it’s been a great start to the summer!

My last day of school was nearly two weeks ago. It was a teacher work day and I was allowed to zip off during the work day to pick up Judi from the airport. We stopped at The Brick House in West Milton for lunch and then I returned to the school. I gave Judi a tour of the new school building and then finished getting my room ready for summer. Of course, as soon as I was done, the heavens let loose with a frog strangler to strangle all frogs. During one of the points of less rain, I ran out (OK, walked quickly) to the car to pick Judi up. After a stop at home, we headed off to the Lake.

We’d been at the Lake for an hour or so when Judi needed to use the toilet, whereupon we discovered that there was water on the floor in the bathroom. Eep! I couldn’t see where the water was coming from (apparently, I’m blind because it was obvious the next day, according to Papa, that it was coming from the water softener) but I called the parental units and let them know. I cleaned up the mess as well as possible and it looked like we had the leak under control for now.

Elsa arrived later that evening, so after hugs and a bit of gossip, we headed to Brucken’s bar for supper. Having tried their “sex with the captain” cocktail before, I ordered it again. It’s basically a “sex on the beach” but with Captain Morgan’s spiced rum instead of vodka. I also got one of their Brucken burgers and ate Elsa’s fries. (She said I could!) Dessert was at the Dairy King around the corner.

The next day, I tried to start my “new summer regimen” of getting up early and talking a walk. (It’s been working sort of well so far. Some days are better than others!) The main plan for the day was for our Elsa dinner. She’s prepared some pork ribs before she drove down and I grilled them to her specifications. We also had grilled onions with a mustard sauce that she’d made, and her sour cream potato salad. The folks joined us for lunch (dad brought his World Famous Slaw) and we ate well.

While dad was there, he surveyed the leak, which seemed to be getting bigger, and saw its origins. He contacted the plumber who installed the softener and made arrangements for calling on Monday. Meanwhile, the girls and I would sleep in my house a couple of nights while the water was shut off at the Lake.

The original plan was for the three of us to go to my Aunt Becky’s for cards, but Elsa wasn’t have much luck with the task she was working on that evening, so she stayed behind while Judi and I went. So Judi got to meet Dona and Jill and see my Aunt’s new place. Sadly, Judy wasn’t there – I was hoping to introduce Judi to Judy. When we returned home, Elsa and Judi and I played the youth Trivial Pursuit that I’ve had since the ’80s and I wound up winning cuz I kept getting the easy questions. Heh. The next morning, we tried to have pancakes and sausage, but for a few issues: we’d forgotten to pack the sausage and Elsa’s grill. We improvised with mini scones and cereal and some OJ I bought at the local gas station. Then we were off to the Troy Strawberry Festival.

I’d taken Judi to the Strawberry festival before, but this was Elsa’s first time there. We parked at Meijer and took the shuttle (a school bus) to the festival. We found several things we wanted to purchase at the first few booths. I tried a very yummy strawberry sushi dish, had my usual strawberry lemon shake-up, had a strawberry empanada, and stood in line with Judi for ages for a pork chop sandwich. Elsa and I picked up the yard decorations we’d spotted at the start of the show and then returned to the shuttle.

After shopping a little at Meijer, we returned home to veg before we headed out later for dinner and a movie. IIRC, the dinner was Panera (yay for the strawberry poppyseed salad!) and the movie was Now You See Me. We all enjoyed the movie. Back at my house, Judi and I played Muppet Monopoly, which she eventually conceded to me. Go me!

Monday morning, we pack up the car again and headed to Bob Evans on our way back to the Lake. We got there late enough that we had brunch for breakfast. Heh. Dad was already at the Lake (as was the plumber) and when we arrived, he zipped off to lunch. We all just vegged at the Lake and eventually the bathroom was free for use of public (or whatever). For supper, I grilled a flank steak, which Elsa had prepared and later sliced. I also grilled some zucchini and baked a potato for Judi and I in the coals. Supper was very tasty. We then spent the evening by the fire.

Tuesday was Elsa’s last day with us. She made us blueberry pancakes and sausage (finally, success!). Then she packed up and headed back home. Judi was starting to get twitchy due to lack of Internet, so we went to the book store & coffee shop in New Breman for lunch. Then to Wagner’s grocery (which had better wifi than the coffee shop) for a few more odds and ends. That evening, we grilled hotdogs and had leftover potato salad and slaw.

Wednesday was a shopping day. We met the parental units at Kohl’s and both Judi and I found stuff (I got 5 pairs of shorts, all size 16, and a new swimsuit, size 18 – whee!) which we could then use my 30% off card. Then the folks drove us to Tipp City for lunch at Coldwater Cafe. I had their lobster and crabcake salad, which I love. I think Judi liked hers too. The folks returned us to the Kohl’s parking lot and Judi and I stopped in at the new cake shop, the Cakery, and bought a cupcake each. Mine was cookies and cream, Judi’s was key lime. Mine was good, I can say. We had leftover ribs for supper. And I think we got something ice creamy at The Dairy King.

Thursday was Winging It day. We had no real plans, other than a vague idea to go see Star Trek. We decided to have breakfast at Waffle House. On our way south to Sydney to the Waffle House, I had Judi check on her cell phone when Star Trek played at the Evil Puppy Mall. She also saw listings for the Greene, and I thought – well I’d never taken Judi there… There was an 11:10 IMAX showing according to her phone, so we headed on down after our WH breakfast and arrived at the theatre at 11:05. Which, apparently, was when the movie (not in IMAX mode) was showing. Tickets were only $4 each, so we went.

After the movie, which we both enjoyed (what can I say, I was expecting a popcorn movie and I got one!), we left the Greene (it was raining, so outdoor shopping was out) and headed for the Evil Puppy Mall. Sadly, Judi wasn’t allowed to hold any of the evil puppies (and thankfully they had no Pomeranians to tempt her). We then went to Red Slobster for lunch and then Best Buy. By then it had stopped raining, so we had time at the Lake to veg. But then we wanted just a bit of food to eat and decided to go to Dairy Queen. I had a burger and a blizzard (mint Oreo).

Friday morning we vegged some more and then eventually got the car loaded up. It was the day to return Judi to Chicago. We had lunch at the Friendly’s near the airport, then I dropped her off. I headed on to Troy where mom and I then took a bike ride. We finally got on the path north of Eldean road and it was lovely. It’ll be even nicer when they get that connected to the Piqua bike path. The folks and I then went to the Lost Creek Antique & Garden Show. We waited at the entrance for about 20 minutes waiting for them to open, then we made a bee-line for the flower vendor mom loves. She bought 4 plants which were all lovely (as every who later saw us carrying them said), and then we were able to look around the show. That night I got to sleep in my bed again with the kitties!

Saturday morning, I headed off to Troy again. This time the folks and I headed on to Yellow Springs for their Street Fair. We had lunch at Ha Ha Pizza (sadly, their calzones weren’t available due to the large crowds they always get at the Street Fair). I found a lovely wooden bowl at one of the vendors at the fair and it was still available when we were leaving, so I purchased it. Now I have a gorgeous bowl for my fruit.

Sunday was just going to be Clean Trina’s House and Do Tons of Laundry day, but that was changed slightly when mom called to say she had 2 tickets to see Dreamgirls and she’d buy my dinner if I joined her. What can I say? I’m a sucker for dinner and a Broadway show. We ate at The Spaghetti Warehouse (I had pesto on spaghetti with zucchini and grape tomatoes and a Mango Tango bellini) and then walked from there to the Schuster Center. The show was excellent – I’m glad we were able to see it.

Monday was Clean the Lake Day, which I did. I even had some time to see and relax while I was there. Tuesday, mom and I took our longest bike ride of the season so far (which was the aforementioned 12.8 mile ride). Today, I’ll be returning to the folks to spend a couple of nights. Tomorrow is water aerobics and WeightWatchers in the morning followed by Supper Club in the evening. And I’m sure we’ll do something fun on Saturday.

So this has been a great start to my vacation. Next week my two college courses start (one on stoichiometry demos, one on lab safety), so I hope to get those going well. Once I complete these, I’ll be at my Masters +15 and able to scoot up a little on the pay scale at work. Whee!

The End of Spring Break

Ah, this has been a wonderful Spring Break. I’m sad it’s over, but it’s been an excellent restorative.

Did most of what I wanted to do over the break. Gamed some, read some, cleaned some, shopped some, ate some.

Wednesday, I had dad around and he fixed my back door lock and we got the “family heirloom” back up to snuff. This was the corner cupboard which was most likely NOT built by my grandfather or great grandfather. Probably built in the 1920s by a cabinet maker, dad suspects, rather than a furniture maker. It’s made of walnut and had some water (and cat) damage from when it was at Granny’s house (later Aunt Becky’s house). Dad had brought around most of his solvents and much of his furniture restoring equipment, but it turned out alcohol and a little bit of Old English polish was enough to get it looking good. (And today I painted the inside of the cabinet to cover the odd paint job that was in it.)

So now I have a corner cabinet which is displaying another “family heirloom” – a set of Depression Glass that my great Aunt Alma left to me a few years back. It’s nice to finally have that out to be seen instead of stored in my kitchen cupboards. (The bottom half of the corner cabinet has more storage space, too, so I’ve got my crock pot there for now – with probably more items joining it.)

Thursday was a fun evening out with my folks and friends (formerly from work – now all retired with only me still working). We had half-priced appetizers and drinks at the bar, then moved to the dining area for supper. I had 2 dirty girl scout martinis (chocolate & mint – yum!), shrimp tempura (and a bit of dad’s pizza appetizer and one of mom’s shrimp coctails), and a lovely salad for supper. The Caroline is a nice place to eat out with friends.

I spent the night with the folks (hence 2 drinks instead of one), and the following morning mom and I went off to her water aerobics class at the Lincoln Center. It was nice to get into the pool again. Got to meet the ladies in her class and exercise a bit. We returned home for a shower, then moved onto a WeightWatchers meeting. When our workplace one ends, I’ll probably join this one. Lots of people there, which was good to see.

I went to Brukner Nature Center several times over Spring Break. I’m not sure I could have asked for nicer weather for Spring Break. Heck, today it got to the lower 70sF. (And today was one of the few days I couldn’t get out for a decent walk – go figure!)

I finished my Spring Break as I do many of my Sundays – doing laundry, baking bread, cleaning the kitchen. I also painted the interior of the corner cabinet, cleaned the Depression Glass, and after the paint was dry, put the dishes into the cabinet.

But now it’s bedtime, so I’m off to sleep. Tomorrow school begins anew, with only 8 weeks to go! (Good grief!) Summer will be here before we know it!

Welcome 2013!

Nearly a week into the new year and I’m finally posting. I blame my sinus infection. When I wasn’t hanging out with the folks and Amy (or working), I was getting sleep to fight my sinus infection.

But I’m feeling almost normal (or as normal as I can be) and have a bit of time this morning to type up a post about the end of 2012 and start of 2013.

Amy arrived late on Friday evening and it was lovely to have her home again. We did Christmas morning on Saturday, then. First stockings, full of fun, small kitchen gadgets, then breakfast. Dad grilled us Egg McMikey’s and served ’em on the English Muffin Toasting Bread that I had baked for just that occassion.

We opened lots of presents and, once again, won at Christmas. Mom and I even zipped off to the Co-op in the middle in order to pick up a few supplies (and then to Kroger to pick up one more Christmas pressie). I got lots of nifty stuff, including a mini-cannon (which actually fires), bread baking supplies, nice clothes (most of which fit), and an HO train car, just like Christmasses when I was a kid. Lovely nostalgia. 🙂

Sunday was mom’s day to shine. She decided to make a true Anderson dinner. Her brothers and my cousins were invited around for dinner and she made fried chicken and noodles like Grandma. Amy and I helped with other things, like banana salad and rolls. I decided NOT to make Grandma’s tapioca, because the last time I’d made it, everyone tasted it and said “Gee, this tastes just like Grandma’s tapioca. I never did like her tapioca!” Heh.

Monday was New Years Eve and we had a relaxing day which finished off with us having snacks and watching Trading Places and The Amazing Spider-Man before the ball dropped. I fired my cannon during the countdown (almost timing it perfectly).

New Years Day was even more relaxing. Mom made us baked oatmeal for breakfast. I got to watch my parade (thank you Pasadena!). I finished reading The Casual Vacancy. We had pork and kraut for lunch. I opened birthday presents. Money to buy Neil Innes, new box-set and a Mah Jongg tile set in handy carrying case. Sadly, I then had to go home that evening because I worked the next day.

I felt bad for my students. Even though I felt fine, by this point in my sinus infection, I had practically lost my voice. I felt like a cough drop addict on Thursday. But on Friday, during physics, my ear canal finally drained and I could hear again. And today I feel even better.

So a nice, quiet start to the New Year. That works for me! I hope others have had a great start and that 2013 turns out to be the Best Year Ever!

Fun in Minneapolis (the tl, dr edition)

I’ve been busy having fun & frolic with my family this weekend. This is the main reason I haven’t been updating my journal.

When I last left off, it was still Wednesday and we’d only just had naps. We had a few chores yet to do before Thanksgiving, including a booze run and the search for “real” cranberry sauce (the Ocean Spray variety in a can). Amy showed the folks the cottage they’ll be staying at most of the them they are here (they’re here for another week after I go). We also picked up Rachel at her apartment and got to see her little kitty, Charlotte.

We had Wine Time in lieu of supper where I had a pear hard cider (Fox barrel, so far my favorite pear cider). The cheese assortment was excellent, except for the sheep’s cheese that Amy had gotten from her cheese CSA. Ah well, they can’t all be winners. Amy, Rachel, and mom worked on baking the pies (sweet potato, apple, and pumpkin respectively) and I made my thanksgiving cheeseball. When everyone was back to their respective locations, Amy and I cleaned the turkey & let it soak in brine overnight.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Amy and I got up at a reasonable hour in order to get things going. The cheeseball was finished, the turkey was prepped & stuffed into the oven, and the stuffings were prepared. Amy picked up mom and Rachel biked over while we were doing all of the rest of the work. Mom got the table set and it looked ecclectic and interesting.

Dad called later, looking for a thanksgiving dinner to be paternal over, so mom picked him up. And by 2pm, Amy’s friends, Jim & Carrie, arrived. Time to EAT!

The food was wonderful, the company excellent. I am very thankful for my family and our friends. And I’m really glad we got to come & visit Amy for the holiday.

The evening was closed with a game of Apples to Apples, which, frankly, is a little boring after playing Cards Against Humanity. Amy won the game. I had only 1 card at the end. Alas!

Rachel spent the night with us that night, and Charlotte was picked up because she’s still very young and hasn’t been alone all night yet. Curtis, my sister’s cat, tolerated his little cousin. He’s probably glad when she finally goes home. 🙂

The girls and I had decided there was one Black Friday sale that we had to attend. A local business had donuts and coffee, 10% off, and a free gift for $20 purchase (a $50 value). So we took advantage of their sale. I had two of their donuts (they kept insisting) and we each bought enough merchandise for the free gift. Rock on! Here’s to small businesses that take care of their customers!

We picked up the folks and then headed to Brit’s Pub for lunch. I had half a BLT and cock-a-leekie soup along with a Strongbow (on tap). We had a great time at the pub and I picked up the tab. It seems appropriate to eat there since it was Doctor Who‘s 49th anniversary.

Our only big box store visited that day was Target for a couple of things that we needed. It wasn’t overly crowded, whih was nice. Then we went to Depth of Field, the futon store that Amy got her futon from. She was determining what fabrics to get her bolsters and pillows in. Dad, meanwhile, investigated what on him kept setting off anti-theft devices in stores. To everyone’s annoyance (and my amusement), he kept removing stuff until he finally discovered it was something in his wallet. He eventually discovered a little RF antenna in it.

Our final shopping spot of the day was Midwest Mountaineering. This allowed us to have our parking ticket validated and both of the girls found useful purchases. Looking at the price of the Smartwool socks, I realized that my $9 Fox River socks weren’t too expensive after all. Heh.

We returned to Amy’s for pie and coffee. We finished off the apple pie (now with ice cream). Then we headed to mom & dad’s cottage in order to watch Brave on the nice TV there. Turkey sammiches were the snack of the night. Then Amy and I dropped Rachel off at her place (Charlotte had been dropped off earlier) and returned home for bed.

Yesterday (Saturday), we had several things planned in advance. To start with, Amy and I made breakfast. She made “refrigerator clean out” eggs in a tortilla wrap and I fried potato cakes from leftover mashed potatos. The breakfast was a success, if we do say so.

Next, we walked to the library so she could return some videos and get her books that were on order. Sadly, we were too late for her to avoid the late fee on the DVDs, but the fee is pretty reasonable.

Then we picked up the parental units and headed to the chicken coop. It was Amy’s day to feed & water the chickens. I helped! Sadly, the outdoor water faucet was frozen, but Amy discovered that after she dumped the water (whoops). So a short trip to Rainbow to buy 2 gallons of drinking water, and she was done with the coop chores.

I have a number of people I’ve known online for years and yesterday had the chance to finally meet one of them. He’s a member of the Greater Midwest Lego Train Club and they had an open house in the Brickmania Toyworks display room. So we went there and were awed by the train displays, and I got to meet Michael. I took lots of photos.

We had hopped to also visit an antique store in that area, but the frozen tap had other ideas. So we just hopped on the 35W and headed south to Bloomington to meet a friend of dad’s at Sawatdee for lunch. The lunch was good (I, of course, had tofu pad thai), and it was nice to see Bill again.

Since we were down in Bloomington, we decided to visit Ikea. I love shopping at Ikea. I think I need to visit my “local” next weekend. Heh. But I managed to refrain from putting stuff in the basket. Amy, meanwhile, scored a number of nice things. A Poang chair, stuff for her soon-to-be remodeled bathroom, and a few other odds and ends.

We dropped the folks off at their cottage, then put Amy’s purchases into her house and got snack foods, and finally picked up Rachel. Then it was Game Time at mom & dad’s cottage. Mom popped popcorn and we munched on that and cheese ball and crackers. We started with Euchre, where Rachel and I won after a slow start. Then we played Rumikub, where I won after a slow start. Heh.

So now Amy and I are relaxing on a fine (but chilly) Sunday morning. NPR is on the radio. We had a cinnamon roll (from Ikea, dad’s purchase) and steel cut oats (I doctored mine with brown sugar, almond slivers, butter, and banana). Tasty tasty. Dunno what we’re doing today other than eventually taking me to the airport. Gonna miss hanging out with the family, but will be glad to see the kitties again.

Long Day is Long

I got up this morning at 3:45am EST. It’s now 11:42pm EST, so I’ve been up for a long time. Why, you ask? Well, this morning the folks and I flew to Minnesota to visit my sister – woohoo!

Our flight took off at 6:45am and we got in early – 7:30am CST. Turns out Amy was mistaken on the arrival time (we were supposed to arrive at 8am, she was thinking 8:40) but she met up with us at the car rental place shortly after we had loaded it up.

We headed to her place of work for K-Day where they were celebrating with kalua, koffee, and kookies. Apparently this is a tradition on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We got to meet several co-workers (current and former) of hers and it was always fun being introduced as “Amy’s sister” or “Amy’s parents” etc. 🙂

As I’m rather tired, I’m sure I’ll get some of this wrong, but I think we next went to pick up the turkey & last minute items from the co-op. Sadly, the “fresh” turkey was frozen, but we think we’ll be good for tomorrow.

Once back at Amy’s, we figured out where to head for lunch. We went to Herkimer Brewery as mom would get bonus points for her air miles card (or something). I thought the beer battered fish was very good, as was the tartar sauce. Sadly, some of the other things there weren’t quite as good. The fries were no better than ones you’d find in your grocer’s freezer. Ah well, the Strongbow cider was a plus.

We had a couple more things to pick up while out, then we returned home for naps. I didn’t nap, but got caught up on e-mail and twitter. But not LJ, sadly. Or else I wouldn’t be doing this now when I’m too tired to type. I think I’ll finish this for now and continue tomorrow (or whenever I next get to updating. Heh.)

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (minutes away in Ohio!) so y’all have a great day!

WoW claims another victim – NaNoWriMo

First, I should updated my WoW icon. I don’t play the two Horde characters in the list, and I don’t have my Worgen or Pandarian showing.

Second, I have now paused on my NaNoWriMo novel. I got past 6100 words, but then Parent/Teacher Conferences came. When I got home late from the first night, I realized I would rather play World of Warcrack than work further on my novel. (And I really don’t know what happened the day before – what was my excuse for Wednesday?)

Friday night we had a dinner party at a friend’s place. An Oktoberfest in November. What’s funny is what occured BEFORE the party…

See, thanks to my gaming addiction, I’ve been having issues getting to my parents’ house at the times I say I’ll be there. Dad now just expects me to be late ‘cuz it happens so often. (He is a scientist, you know, and is good with interpreting evidence.) So I was going to be on time, dammnit!

I actually set the stove timer to remind me when I should bug out Friday evening. I played WoW until the timer went off. And then headed outside. I scolded myself as I exited that I hadn’t parked in front like I’d told myself I would do in the morning. (I actually drove to work that morning since I was running late. I don’t game before work, but Twitter sometimes distracts me in a similar fashion.)

I walked into the garage and noticed the absence of car. Um, the reason I hadn’t remembered to park in front of the house? I hadn’t remembered to drive home! LOL. I stood there laughing at myself, then called dad on my cell as I started walking (quickly) to the school to get my car.

I wasn’t much later to the folks than I had intended, and we wound up being the first there to our friends’ place. The evening was fun and I had two hard ciders during the course of the evening. (Was fine when it was time to drive the folks home.)

And when I got home, I wasn’t in the mood to write. So the poor thing is languishing. I haven’t decided yet if I want to give it up or try to jump start it. We have another round of parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday. Then when Thanksgiving comes, I’ll be busy with family family family.

Hmmm, I have Christmas music playing now. Perhaps if I turned the novel to a Christmas story I’d be more likely to write it…

Wow, October’s nearly over!

Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it’s the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc… MMORPGs are bad, mmm’kay?)

Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I’ve done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn’t know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.

doggytreen

I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print “Generic Mask” on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post punkin pix.

Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Anyone have a novel plot idea????

Quicky end of month post

Can I get this posted before midnight? Let’s try!

Today the parental units and I went to the Tipp City Mum Festival. Lots of stalls selling things, mostly autumn-themed items. Several stalls with mums and pumpkins too. And of course, the most important stalls, the food vendors!

Dad and I each got gyros (mine lamb, his chicken), mom got a corn dog, and we split an order of spiral fried potatoes (basically, home made potato chips). Good eats. Then for dessert, the folks got a peach cobbler a la mode which was tasty, and I got the deep fried sampler: cheesecake bites, Nutterbutters, and Oreos. Almost too sweet for me (almost). Thankfully, the folks ate almost half of the sampler.

This evening was cards at Aunt Becky’s – probably the last time we’ll play cards at her house as she’ll be moving to a two bedroom apartment in two weeks. And we’ll probably play cards there (as she’s moving into the same complex as another of our regular card players). I came in second during the first game, and came in first during the second – woo!

Oh, and I think Sophie Aldred spoiled tonight’s Doctor Who episode for me. Reading Twitter before you’ve watched the episode can be a bad idea…

Oooh – I think I made the time – woo!

It’s Autumn!

Ah, the Autumnal Equinox! And the promise of autumnal weather (which we’ve been having) and autumnal sights (trees are looking like the trees in model train sets) and autumnal smells (love the smell of decaying leaves). 🙂

Our Grand Adventure today was for the folks and I to go to the Aullwood Apple Festival. Unlike the Troy Strawberry Festival, the featured fruit wasn’t present in most of the booths, which was a bit of a surprise. But the various booths had interesting items and lots of food choices.

Dad and I decided to try the “fish boats” that one tent was selling. And while we waited for our food, mom held up the tent for the folks making our lunch – it was so blustery the tent kept threatening to fall over. The fish was excellent. Mom opted to try the lamb chili that another place was selling – that was tasty too. I also had a lemon shake-up, which was mighty tasty. And just because I could, I had the “hot waffle ice cream sandwich” which is just as described. Interesting.

As we were finishing our lunch, big black storm clouds crept over the festival, so we (and half of the folks there) headed to the inside bits. Thankfully, the clouds blew over without raining, so we returned outside to share an apple dumpling a la mode before heading back.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning house and listening to the latest Big Finish Sylv audio, Gods and Monsters. And halfway through that story, I got to watch the latest TV episode, “The Power of Three.” Quite enjoyable. I’m gonna miss the Ponds!

Tomorrow is laundry day. And hopefully I get a nice walk in to enjoy our lovely weather.