Tricksy Knitter.com apparently has a chart designer, which I'll try out later now that I have a working log in. Unfortunately it won't save charts unless you're logged in, so I just lost an knit-purl chart that was intended to let me do a cornered edge for a blanket I'm trying to make, but I'll just re-do it later. It should be a pretty cool tool though.

Tired again

So... yeah. We had another crazy night. Mini Monster apparently decided to have some kind of stomach problem, and needed two diaper changes for really poopy very uncomfortable diapers during the night, and would not sleep in his own crib. Every time we tried to put him down, he'd wake up crying, no matter how soundly he'd just been asleep with us. It was extremely frustrating for all parties, since we were all incredibly tired. I gave up after about three rounds early in the night, including the diaper change. ((If anyone thought they heard loud, furious screeching, that would have been MiniMonster howling his righteous fury about having his butt wiped.Of course I probably would have been mad too, since...

  You get the idea.

 He wasn't too impressed to have cream applied either, but that did help him once he decided to get over the indignation.

 After that I gave up and brought him to bed with us, where he set up another yowl until he found Tilmani with his reaching, grabbed on, and snuggled up to his dad.

 We got a couple hours of sleep after that, before he woke up needing another change, ((This time Tilmani took care of it)) and something like four rounds and a bottle ((At two in the morning)) later, we finally convinced him to sleep in his own bed.

 Of course by that point we were pretty much guaranteed to be total zombies... and we even slept in by half an hour and didn't realize it. OOF.

 Here's hoping things settle down.

 Oh, I've also changed the archiving on the blog: Any thoughts? Does everyone like daily archiving better? Or weekly? Trying to be convenient but also friendly to those people out there who still have slower net.

Who Needs Sleep

Today was an "Who Needs Sleep" day. MiniMonster woke up at one, apparently he had a nightmare, and it took him a while to get back to sleep. Me, I didn't really -get- back to sleep. I just kind of did an off and on doze, and crawled out of bed at six.

I got running on a cup of coffee and a can of Red Bull ((otherwise known as my "Ultra Emergency Stash". I try and avoid the stuff unless I'm pretty sure that there's no way I'll function at a human level.

I started off feeling pretty Jeckel and Hyde, and just generally crabby, but fortunately the caffeine kicked in after a couple hours, and I mellowed out. As a second blessing, apparently the Monster somehow keyed in to the idea that Mommy was dead tired, and was very sweet today.

Haven't repaired his mitten yet, but I did cast on for a new hat for him. It's a little beret in sock yarn. I got some really nice hand died merino from "Creature Comforts" on Etsy, the owner of which I've actually talked to on GaiaOnline. The color is called "Iago" after the character in Shakesphere, and is shades of green, black, and white. I think it'll be really cute.

Creamy Onion-Potato Soup, Bedroom Gear, and Growing

So those of you who have been hanging on for the updates about the MiniMonster, you'll be interested to know that he's grown a full two inches since last month. He's got some new winter coats, some little boots, and -had- some nice mittens, but he destroyed one of them in his first time out wearing them, demonstrating that I still need some work on strengthening my end seams to resist his exploring little fingers.

We also had to go get a new set of sheets for our room, since apparently the Laundry Gremlins ((Those little Gremlins who mysteriously make random articles from the laundry vanish from the earth, regardless of where you're sure you left them)) ate one of our fitted sheets.

I got two sets, one in what's called "Willow Green" and another in "Fox Tail Orange", which reminds me less of a fox and more of a rich spice, like Paprika. It's actually a pretty color, and looks pretty good with our green and brown comforter. I think it'll also look good with my white and red-pink quilt. It's white with a pattern of crown vetch on it, so it's a bit girly for Tilmani's taste, but I put it out occasionally anyway.

We also ordered MiniMonster a book case. He'll be one pretty soon, and probably walking, so we got an book shelf with a magazine rack styled shelf set up on one side and some plastic bins in red, blue and yellow for him to easily put toys into and out of. ((Probably mostly out of)).

We've also got Thanksgiving and Tilmani's birthday coming up in rapid succession, so planning is underway to try and make sure he gets his own special day in spite of how close it is to Thanksgiving. Wish us luck!

Lastly, we have a recipe to share with everyone!
For lack of a better name: Creamy Onion-Potato Soup!

Onion Soup:

3 onions cut into strips/slivers

3/12 cups chicken Broth

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

2-3 cups cheddar cheese

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

½ cup mashed potato mix.<-- you may wish to add more potato flakes to make it nice, thick and smooth.

2 tbs butter

Slices of Pepperjack

Saute’ the onions in the butter, add the chicken broth and spices, boil, lower temperature and simmer for 20 min. Mix milk and flour, add to soup, add potato mix, cheese, stir until smooth and thickened.

Serve with a slice of pepperjack melting on top.

This soup comes out nice and thick, almost a little more like stew, and would be -fantastic- with a bread-bowl. The pepper amount can be adjusted to taste, since Tilmani and I like it a little spicy.

Laundry Faux Pas

...So apparently due to paying insuficient attention to the things that got tangled up in my laundry... I ran a Huggies "Jeans" diaper through the washing machine.

I would not recommend this course of action. I thought that one of Owen's toys (which needed washed) had exploded.

Well, we survived Halloween! Unfortunately my costume didn't quite make it until the Trick or Treaters arrived. We had part of the game group over, though one of our members couldn't make it, and will be out of the running for a while thanks to other "Real Life" necessities. ((Darn that RL stuff, getting in the way of a good game.))

Because he's going to be out for so long, we're going to switch over to playing a game we haven't run for a while, and jump back into the Star Wars universe.

I realize there's a running rumor that you can't be a fan of both Star TREK and Star WARS, but I don't agree. I'm a fan of both, though the Star Wars system lends itself more to roleplay IMHO. But then I've never tried a game set in the Trekiverse.

So yeah, we had part of the guys over, and since we were figuring out how to best handle a players extended absence without writing his character out (We didn't think that would be fair, because it would put him way behind in levels when he came back.) We watched some shows together, ate ourselves silly on candy, Crock Pot BBQ, and other goodies.

Turtle even brought us some Ramune soda, which I love. Apparently he discovered a candy store where they have bushels of Ramune and Pocky, and other candy goodies. He didn't spot the Pocky but his brother did, so I teased him that in penance he needs to bring us a selection of good Pocky for next game.

We also had Karen, Tom and Summer over, they came by and trick-or-treated, and had some food with us. Summer concluded that the chicken was "Too 'picy", and would have prefered to dine entirely on candy, which she wasn't allowed to do. There was an small chase with a carrot stick too. She was rather determined that she'd get all her sustenance from Sweet Tarts and Nerds, and her mom was pretty determined that at the least there would be some carrot in there too.

MiniMonster sort of enjoyed the attention, but after a while it got to be kind of too much and he turned clingy and upset... and eventually quietly spit up on my costume. He doesn't spit up much these days, so it's a pretty good indicator he's had quite enough of 'That' thank you.

He went to bed shortly after that, fussed for about two minutes and conked out for hours.

We all had a blast, and we actually did get some trick or treaters, who were quite ecstatic about discovering that we had full sized candy bars. Eyewidening and gasps of amazement were a -lot- of fun.

We've still got a good chunk of candy left over, since we didn't get that many, but I bet we get some repeat customers next year. ;)

Happy Halloween!

Since I don't know if I'll actually post on Halloween itself, I figure I'll wish everyone a happy and fun Halloween a little early!

Halloween is personally one of my favorite times of the year, since it's a bonifide excuse to dress up, give out, and get candy, and the historical information behind it is also pretty damn neat.

I mean then again I do love me some interesting and obscure Monsters. I did a paper once on Black Shuck, after all. I think that was the most fun I ever had researching something in college.

I think it's even going to be pretty nice weather for it. Maybe a little cool but not freeze you to your bones cold. I'll cross my fingers for it anyway, and I bet a lot of kids out there are doing the same. It's always a little annoying when you work super hard on your costume and then you hide 90% of it under puffy layers of warm things to keep from being Mr. Freeze instead of Batman.

Apparently later today we're having some sort of Live Action game up and down the street based on a book called "Hunger Games". Our Lawn is going to be the 'graveyard' area I think since it's across the street from the hosts house, has a large lawn, and a view of almost everything. Tilmani's a little unsure, but I already gave permission. *cough* So here's hoping that all goes down alright and I don't have to threaten an teenager with a cold blast of hose. I am a mean and evil person when I'm tired, after-all.

We'll probably have our usual weekend game gathering, at which I figure on making some crock pot Vinegar BBQ and maybe a side of sweet potatoes, and then hand out some candy.

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MiniMonster has pretty much cut the three teeth up top that he was working on, and ambitiously... seems to be working on TWO MORE.

I swear this kid has got it into his head that he's going to be biting chunks out of things by thanksgiving. He's sure trying hard enough! He needed some new socks, and we bought him some little leather soled slippers, since the weather is getting colder, and his feet are getting bigger. We tried buying him some shoes but Tilmani's estimate on his feet size was... *cough* a little off. I think you could fit both his feet into one of those shoes, so fortunately the slippers fit, but I bought those while MiniMonster was actually along.

He also decided to say "Hi" to the phone last night when his father called, that was a fun moment. Of course then he kept saying "Hi" for the next ten minutes, which was also cute. I guess you can't blame the guy for enthusiasm!

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Discovered some fun new web comics: I recommend "The Not so Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal", which was a fun find. Really gorgeous art too! Otherwise not a ton of stuff, but I'll keep you posted.

I mean I'm sure anyone on facebook has figured out I'm addicted to "Mouse Hunt". (HA! I made the Pumpkin Pummeler Trap! Dang that thing is hysterical... though I apologize to anyone annoyed by the updates regarding my mouse hunting triumphs.

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And you probably notice I sprouted an award. Leez of "Gnome Season" apparently decided to pass along the "Blog With Substance" award, which she also got and is convinced she doesn't deserve. I'm kinda tickled by getting a blog award... though I'm sure my 'obligatory interview' stuff will be pretty boring.

1. Thank the blogger who gave me the award.

^_^ Thanks Leez! And you do too deserve it.

2. Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five words:
..
Love, Learning, Family, Friends, Creativity...

3. Pass this on to 10 other bloggers that you feel have a substance in their blogs.:

...Yeah I definitely don't know ten. Leeze has already got it... so: Erica (Adventures in Surrogacy) and Wanda (Langham Fat Farm) I choose you! *throws a pokeball*