Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Five hours

Whoo! Packing for D*Con. Probably won't blog 'till I get back.

Check the "Family Photos" link for pics of the birthday party...

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Solomon Grundy want pants too!

I've been up near to 3 the last two nights costuming... Ari's party was awesome, and I have great pictures. But, later... Sleep now. I know you must be waiting anticipatorily for them, though, so I uploaded one at random. Look! It's Ari playing with her new O-ball!

Days to D*Con: 2
Costumes to finish: Little touches on various different costumes (I may have stayed up to 3, but my sluagh costume is basically done, and looks awesome).

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Startlingly tardy

This is what I came down to this morning. :) Rather than sleep, Thad went around and arranged this- this, and a Jack Buster (my favorite from Jack and Benny's). My man knows the way to my heart. :D

Ari ate that banana, too. Just about the whole thing. It was this enormous mushy gross mess. Ari and I took a bath right after.

If anyone recognizes the flower, let me know. It's a weird kind of flower, and we've spent all day wondering what it is.

This evening was my proper birthday dinner. We went out, and everything. You'll note, I succumbed to the temptation to wear my Inara dress. I was totally the fanciest-dressed girl at the Lone-Star Steakhouse.

I got many nice presents, including the pictured B&N gift certificate (Thanks, Mom and Dad!). Theresa gave me a beautiful skirt, and also a drop spindle and a hunk of wool! Now I'm going to have to bite the bullet and learn to knit, if only to do something with my pretty green wool.

As you can see, Ari was quite the little eater girl. She also played with her crayons, which was kind of cool. Back in June, I had her "make a card" for Father's Day, and she didn't have the concept at all of making marks on the paper deliberately. Tonight, while she wasn't good at doing it, she seemed to at least think it was something one could do with crayons. In between trying to eat them, at least.

I did get my two skirts basically finished. If I can just finish my shirt tomorrow, I should be good. Good luck to me, though- tomorrow is Ari's birthday party!

Days to D*Con: 4
Costumes to finish: still 1, still touches on 4.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Happy birthday to me

Well, today is my 27th birthday. I didn't really do much birthday stuff- Thad had to work tonight, so we're going out to dinner tomorrow night instead. We figured we'd open presents there, but I wanted to open one present, and the present Thad's parents sent was too big too take to the restaurant gracefully, so I went ahead and opened it. It's a Le Creuset stockpot! I tried it out on soup tonight, and it was awesome.

Thad did make me waffles this morning (afternoon, technically), and that was nice. It was kind of a slow day, all things considered, though.

Ari, unfortunately was pretty fussy today (this is her hugging her papa's leg, by the by). I just realized that I didn't mention this yesterday, but Ari had two horrible falls off the steps yesterday. The first time, she toppled off the top step (of three, if you'll recall) and hit the bottom step with her face, and then flipped over and hit the pillows at the bottom on her back. I was right there, but couldn't get to her in time.

She hurt her mouth, and it was bleeding, and I utterly panicked. I haven't dared look at it since, in fact. Specifically, she hurt that little bit of skin between her upper lip and her gums- I hope it just got hurt and not totally torn or anything (although that would be a kinship with Grandpa Marcus!).

The second time she fell, she missed the bottom step, but hit the pillows at the bottom head first- like, with the top of her head. She was totally vertical when she hit. It was horrible.

She's been up and down those stairs umpteen times since I posted saying that she had figured out how to get down safely, so I don't know why this happened. Twice. The moms in my group say that she's testing the boundaries of her environment, and trying new things. I think they're right, but it's terrifying! Anyway, I think she might have been kinda sore today, hence the fussy. She went to bed pretty easily, though (after crying her little eyes out about papa going to work, mind).

I did actually get some costume work done today; mostly during nap and after Ari went to bed. This is for my sluagh costume. The skirt still needs to be sewn up, but I'm waiting to do that last seam until I finish the embroidery on the other panels (I've just done the one so far).

It took me a while to figure out what to do for a top, but I'm quite pleased with the result- and I had just exactly enough fabric, too. It's a very nice vest thing. Now, I just have an underskirt, and a shirt, and finishing the skirt to do. Whee! I hope to finish by Sunday at the latest and have Monday and Tuesday to do my touches and get ready for the trip.

Days to Dragon*Con: 5
Costumes to finish: most of 1, touches on 4 more.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

It's a very small world

I've been staying up way too late. Last night, I did not write because I was up until 4 AM playing Serenity. Serenity was awesome, but I'm pretty tired today. :P I didn't get any costuming done today, mostly because I was being tired and lazy, but also because I was reading a book.

We did a little shopping, mostly for Thad's costumes, but also for birthday presents for Ari. We went to our very awesome local kid's bookstore to pick one out, but we left with four between us all. :) That bookstore's siren song did us in. Shopping there is way too fun.

Ari is ever more walking. Yesterday, she took several steps towards me. She doesn't walk so much as stagger yet, though, so it's not yet a viable form of transport.

Days till D*Con: 6
Costumes to finish: 1 and touchup

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Squeak, squeak, squeak

August 22nd? How did it get to be August 22nd already? Time has just zoomed right past, and my summer break will be over before I know it.

Check out Ari, modeling her superhero pants. :) They are a little droopy in this picture, but I have since added elastic. I need to do the last touches on her costumes- I may do some of that during the car ride, though.

Today and yesterday were devoted to the Inara costume. I figured it out in my head yesterday day, but sat down way too late at night to start on it. I cut in the wrong places and had to completely redesign the whole blasted thing.

I still like how it turned out, though. it's got a bit of a train now (I'm not sure where it came from!) and it's a little more cohesive than it was originally going to be.

We had a lovely breakfast this morning, at a cafe down the street. They have an absolutely gorgeous garden in the back, and that's where we ate. Our waitress was very nice, and brought Ari some bananas and orange bits in a plastic cup, free of charge. :) Smart woman- Ari dumped that cup on the ground, first chance she got. But she liked the bananas and oranges.

Ari is totally an eater baby these days, by the by. This is the list of what she ate today:
  • bananas
  • oranges
  • a cracker
  • a vinegar/salt potato chip
  • yogurt
  • leftover orzo with tomato sauce
  • feta cheese
  • potato chips and onion dip
  • several prunes
She particularly liked the prunes- like mama, like daughter! I gave her those, and she acted like they were the best thing she'd ever tasted. Big grins and all! She's also very much a beggar baby these days. :) When I was eating my shrimp leftovers for lunch, she came right up and demanded that I feed her my orzo. And then she cried when it was all gone.

Days till Dragon*Con: 8
Costumes to finish: 1 with any seriousness, 4 more that just have touches left.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Jack? Pallino? Panini?

Today: Baby costumes!

I worked on Ari's costumes today. None of them are totally done, but they're all mostly done. On the right, we have Ari's monster costume. This is to accompany our monster-hunter redcaps. But how could we kill a monster this cute? This costume is made possible (and extra awesome) by a custom dye job from a mom I know. I gave her a onesie and a scrap of white broadcloth and shabang! I have fabric all dyed to match. I think having access to custom-dyed fabric is WAY too much power to give a costumer. :D

I could have tried to do this costume from scratch, but I got the onesie for 1$ at the thrift store, and I figured it would be more comfortable for my little girl to wear- which is of vital importance! I'm not making her wear anything she objects to.
This is Ari as Sandy the Golden Boy. The costume's half finished-although I did finish the outer-wear underwear after she went to bed. Mostly I need to figure out how to do boots... Do I do spats? Booties? hack off the existing feet and redo them? I must think.

After Theresa and I did some sewing today, we had a nice time playing Bocce in the little park across the street. T&G beat us both games, but it was close.

Thad, bless his heart, went to bed at 11 AM, determined to wake up again in a few hours. I actually tried to wake him at 1:30 (per his instructions) but he was completely insensate, and didn't wake till 5:00. I was having conversations with the man, and he didn't remember them, he was so out of it.

Anyway, he worked again tonight. Ari's been crazy fussy most of the day (it's been making me batty) and she didn't go to bed until midnight. Thank god, Theresa's been here. Otherwise, being alone with a fussy baby all day would have really sucked. And, more importantly, I wouldn't have been able to pull together the delicious flaming cheese and seafood dinner that I served tonight.

Well, I thought it was delicious, anyhow. I mean, how can anything with near a pound of shrimp and a whole cup of feta cheese be bad?

Working days till Dragon*Con: 10
Costumes to finish: Still 7... but 4 of those are in wearable shape, if not completely finished.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Up the front, or round the back?

Today, I actually got some costume making done. Nothing amazing, but something. To the left, we have a corset-style "dragonskin" top, with a buttload of lacing. This thing is so hot it isn't even funny. Ah, how we suffer for fashion's sake. This is part of the redcap monster-hunter costume.

We were supposed to take some of our stuff over to R&B's for a garage sale this morning, but that totally fell through due to rain and associated happenings. We're hoping to do it tomorrow, instead.

Thad ended up sleeping until 5 today, too, because I couldn't wake him up without waking up a sleeping baby.

By the by, I got all what I got done done while the baby slept. God knows there was no way I was going to be able to do it while she was awake.

This is the fur-trimmed cape that goes with the top I just showed. I'm also wearing cargo pants and fur-trimmed boots. Yay, bunnies! It looks pretty good, but I think I need a new cap for it. My existing red cap just isn't doing it for me.

Ari took a very late nap today. She's definitely teething again- she's very on-again-off-again fussy, and her sleep schedule is pretty messed up (note the "baby happy fun middle of the night playtime" episodes we've been dealing with of late). When she finally woke up, though, she was a sweet and happy girl who made surprisingly little trouble in the sewing room.

We went for dinner at R&B's- apparently, they got a really good deal on steak and decided to throw a party. There was steak, and some really good corn, and roast potatoes, and garlic bread, and bunches of good fruit to go with. It was a really stellar meal, and Ari had a great time (as did we). She ate a little of everything except the corn and the steak.

And the ticker...
Working days till D*Con: 11
Costumes left to finish: 7

Friday, August 18, 2006

A distinct lack of beignets

Today was another nothing day... I totally failed to work on costumes, for the most part. I worked an itty bit on redcap, but otherwise... Thad was up with her in the night, and slept all day. And worked tonight- so he wasn't around. I may ask Thad to take her away on Wednesday, so I can just focus on getting things done.

It's weird, but I find it really hard to work on things, just because I can't focus. I remember reading a science fiction story once where there was an obsession with making everyone equal. In order to level the playing field, really smart people wore and earpiece and a horrible loud noise would go off every minute or two, to keep them from being able to concentrate. It feels like that. Every minute or two (or more often!), I have to do something baby oriented, and it's really hard for me to get anything done on large projects. :P

Anyway, this is Ari, trying out a spoon. She seems to understand that spoons are food related now, and she kinda wants to try it out. We thought about getting baby spoons, but they were weird and expensive, and I'm not sure why they're good. I am doing research and shall decide what to do about this. :)

Working days 'till D*Con: 12
Costumes to finish: 7 (J redcap, J sluagh, J Inara, A monster, A Sandy, A bunny, T redcap)

Thursday, August 17, 2006

A fine stallion

Here's my baby, reading. She's really starting to get use out of the swing Thad's Uncle Max gave her when she was born. Well, to be fair, we did use it a fair amount as an infant seat (it's all convertible), but she never got super into it as a swing, and the swing bit has long been retired into the basement.

We left the chair (as a rocker) up in the living room, though, and in the last week it's become a favorite spot. Check out her reading her book upside down there!

Anyway, we went around walking today. We got Thad a shirt for his Wash costume, and got some comics.

Here's Ari again, sitting in her chair like a big girl! She's also playing with her elephant (that Grandpa Marcus gave her), finally fixed at last. Thad got tired of it sitting on my mending pile and just did it himself.

Ari was really sweet today; she liked going for a long walk with us, and she went to bed relatively easily. She had couscous and peas for dinner- yum! We did not give her the chicken we also had. She is becoming such an incorrigible beggar. At some point, she's going to have to learn manners...

People came over tonight, and we played Changeling. It was pretty fun, if a bit chaotic. We played in the living room, which (while more spacious) was also kind of hot and busy. Ari crawled all around and played with everybody- which she loved. She really likes it when people are down playing with her.

D*Con countdown: 2 weeks. Costumes to go: a bunch!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

You won

Been a busy couple o' days, hereabouts. Today, we spent six hours shopping for costume stuff, and we didn't even finish. The costuming gods were with us, though, and we totally scored. The best surprise find? A starfleet uniform jacket, for TWO DOLLARS. With insignia, and pips. It was on the women's blouse rack at the thrift store. I can only assume that somebody parted with that sucker unwillingly (A geek died? Their mom cleaned out their closet while they were at school?) and the thrift store employee somehow had not heard of Trek and had no idea what they had.

I'm not sure what we'll do with said jacket, but worst case scenario, we e-Bay that puppy.

Anyway, we came home with great stuff. I have the makings of an awesome Inara costume now, and my Dian Belmont costume is done. The monster hunter costume is coming right along. I got the best pants for it, and I also found some good shirt stuff and fabric for it today.

Ari was the sweetest girl in the universe today. She came with us on our long trek, and was nothing but happy and nice for us the whole day. She got a little fussy right before bedtime, but she went to sleep happily. And so shall I now.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Wild goose chase

It's been a few days since I posted; our weekend was weird. It was weird mostly in that it was exactly like any other day of the week- my time has been sliced into these 5 and 2 chunks for so long that it's habit now. I find it very odd to have that disrupted.

We didn't really do anything with the weekend, in any case. Thad was working Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it was extra not-weekendy. I did go to breakfast at a very nice place, and Thad went to his clix tournament.

Oh, and Theresa and George came into town today. They're staying until D*Con and hen heading out.

Anyway, I thought I'd post some pictures of Ari in her favorite places today. This is Ari sitting at my feet (see the shoes?) under the computer table. Thad taped all those tempting wires up so they're a little less tempting, and she likes to take a book and sit at my feet and read while I check mails or whatever.

As previously mentioned, this is Ari on the stairs. Since we put the pillows down, she's been glued to them like superglue! She can handle them really well nowadays, though. She hardly ever falls at all, and we've gotten to the point where we don't worry about her on the stairs now (given that we remembered to close the gate to the big stairs!).

I keep thinking that one of these days, she'll get tired of the stairs, but not yet! She's having way too much fun. This is where she spends most of her time when in the dining room lately.
This per se is not a favorite spot, but this idea is. She loves being under things. The crib, the table, the papasan, chairs, the rocking chair- she's always climbing under things and getting herself stuck. She's gotten quite a few head bangs by climbing under something and having difficulty getting out.

It's kind of exciting lately, because she's learned to duck her head down- leading to fewer bangs, hopefully.

She took three steps in a row today, and collapsed against the ottoman in the living room. Very exciting- I fully expect her to be a walker by Dragon*Con.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Those were dice bags, by the by

My brain is starting to go bibbledy with no day to day schedule... I look up and I can't remember what day it is, or how many days have passed.

Today, we had another playgroup. Ari was really tired by the end, and just cried all the way home (although she passed out immediately with some nursies and cuddles).

She's been up and down the stairs all day. It's been driving me a bit spare. She's not quite got the hang of getting down safely, so it's meant that one of us has to either hover over her, or try (quite in vain, I assure you) to prevent her getting at the stairs altogether. Or just spend all our time upstairs.

I finally put some big pillows at the bottom of the stairs this evening, after Thad left. Me not hovering seemed to help- she went up and down the stairs safely four times in a row! And she did fall a couple times, but the pillows did their job, and she was totally unhurt. I think she just needed to not feel like mama was waiting to grab her.

Hmm... I should emphasize: when I say "stairs", I mean the three steps leading to the landing. The stairs proper are blocked by a gate. I swear I'm not letting my baby fall down a whole flight. :)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Butterfly on her butt

Ari and I went to a playgroup today! It was a really nice time. It was not too hot out- kinda muggy, but not hot. We went to Janessa's house, which is like, Kid Paradise. Naked Kid Paradise, specifically. :)

She had some water tables, and swings, and some kid pools, and a sandbox, and some more baby-style toys as well. Ari had a great time playing by herself and with other kids. There were like, more than a dozen moms with associated kids all around. It was awesome. I even got some hand-sewing done while I was watching Ari climb on things.

This is what I was working on last night and today- I have plans to make a few more for selling. Like the hand-sewn applique? I really need to learn how to do this with the machine. Anyway, I was mostly working on the embroidery on the blue pouch today. I hope someone likes them enough to give me money for them; that would be nice.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

An unasked-for swimming pool

These pictures are actually from... not yesterday. The day before? How can it be Wednesday already? Anyway, Blogger got all... not-uploady, and I ended up going to bed instead of posting. On, I guess, Monday night.

Ari's been sleeping really badly the last few days- just fighting sleep. Tonight, she didn't get to bed until nearly 1 AM. If this confuses you, I fudged the time for it to be the right date. Like Brooke, I also feel that it's still Wednesday as long as I haven't gone to bed.

Once she gets to sleep, she's fine. It's just taking forever with a tired baby to get her to bed. Last night was about the same- she fought and fought and finally fell asleep on her daddy about midnight.

We went and got our new tags from the BMV today. For you Changeling fans, know that the BMV is a festering, seeping pit of Banality... after standing in the one line, to get a ticket to stand in the other line, to get a ticket to stand in the other line; plus assorted technicalities- it like to put us into the Forgetting.

Ari's really scary today. She took several unassisted steps (so says Thad- I missed it, although she was walking towards me). She also has utterly defeated our stairs blockade. She was past the blockades and up the stairs three times today- and I do mean, up the stairs. All of them.

We've put the gate back on at the top of the landing, and moved the boxes away from the bottom of the stairs (figuring that they pose more of a hazard for her if she can get past them). She's so much more capable and confident now than she was when we put those boxes up. I just hope that she's okay.

Thad took her over to the game store tonight, to check out the Pirates game, and let me stay home and make stuff. I made a few cool dice bags. I intend to try selling them some...

Monday, August 07, 2006

We get up at noon, and go to work at one

Well, we got the fridge cleaned. And the kitchen... And then I ripped up the living room, and the dining room is messy again per usual. It's never-ending. Ah, well- both rooms are in much better shape than they used to be, current messes not withstanding.

Ari was up at 5 AM, back to sleep at 7 and then up again at 9. She had two naps, but ended up staying up till 1 AM (aka, a little while ago). I can only hope she sleeps to a decent hour tomorrow.

She was pretty fussy/needy today, and that sucked. She didn't want to be held, but she didn't want me to do anything interesting, and she wanted me on the ground with her. If I had just sat on the ground doing nothing for hours, she would have been in heaven. Ah, well- she was a tired little girl. It's allowed.

PS: she loves her new bed! :D

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Flash his ass at the gorram law

We have a clean house! All that remains is to finish the thrice-damned refrigerator. And the basement. That's still not quite finished from last week.

Ari and I went to mom's breakfast in the morning, and then we went over to the Whole Foods. Ari's just about outgrown mom's breakfast, though- she's not quite a walking baby, but she's mobile enough to get grumpy if I prevent her from moving around for too long.

She fell asleep in the car on the way home, and I went to elaborate trouble to get her in to her bed still asleep- and then she woke up 10 minutes later. She didn't nap at all later in the day, either.

After Thad got home, we went into cleaning mode, and it looks pretty good now. Tomorrow is for cleaning the fridge, finishing the basement, and vacuuming floors.

After we finished cleaning, I made dinner and we played games. This is Ari eating the mac n' cheese and broccoli we had for dinner. She's such an awesome eater these days. And with only two teeth!

On that note, she had her first semi-solid (shakeable) poop today. Eeeeeeeew.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Old Maid

Guess what this is?

That's our baby, sleeping in her own bed! By "sleeping in her own bed" I of course mean "in her own bed which is directly adjunct to mine", so it's not like she's off down the hall. But I'm thinking that this will be a nice intermediary towards that. And, most importantly, everyone will have space to sleep in.

We went over to the Norka Futon today, and very much surprised the saleslady by walking in and announcing directly what we wanted- "we'll take a 6-inch foam core twin," we said. I think she was shocked at being deprived of the opportunity to give a sales pitch. We did end up having a conversation about it, and lying on some beds. Ari thought that store was the Best Place Ever, and was crawling around like crazy and trying to climb up onto the beds.

Here's a shot of the whole room, in its new configuration. This is what I spent my evening doing while Thad was at Shaintar. You can't see the pile of plastic, displaced pillows, baby blankets, and cosleeper parts that's behind me in this picture...

After we got the mattress, we had to get sheets. We splurged for monkey sheets, and I was actually glad we did it! She seemed to really be drawn to the brightly colored pictures. Since I was trying to help her like being on the bed, the monkeys were a big help.

We nursed several times on the new bed, but in the end, I email-checked her down to sleep†. ??? I think she's feeling kind of teethy lately- I've had to give her Hyland's to get a hurty crying baby back to sleep two nights in a row.
________
†Held her in my arms and let her snuggle and pass out there while I check email/chat to keep myself awake and sane. It works better than trying to do this upstairs because a) I'm more patient when I have email, and b) upstairs she'll get down and play. Here she'll stay in my arms till she passes out.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

The days melt together

Well, we got the kitchen mostly cleaned today (and by "we", I mean "Thad") and we got the bike trailer packed up to return (and again, by "we", I mean "Thad", although I did mostly wrangle the girl so he could get it done. Which is a contribution.) although we didn't actually get 'round to returning it.

The living room is a horrible mess, and it's the kind of mess that I can't deal with quickly- it's stuff that doesn't have a place. That is, leftover basement stuff that I haven't figured out where it goes. That's the worst kind of cleaning, because you have to think about every single thing you put away. So, the living room remains a mess.

The dining room is a mess because I feel disheartened about the living room (plus a little of the aforementioned basement stuff issue), the kitchen is a mess because Thad's been working, and the bedroom is a mess 'cause... I d'know, I'm lazy? I think I'll try to get the bedroom in a liveable state at least tomorrow.

Check out Ari trying to get to mama through the gate! We spent quite a while playing gate peekaboo during dinner preparations today. She thought it was hilarious- she laughed and laughed. Other things my baby thinks are funny:
  1. Papa trying to wear his glasses (silly papa- those are a baby toy!)
  2. Being taller than mama- higher than me on the stairs, being held over me, whatever
  3. Tummy blurbles
  4. Mama dancing
  5. Papa making funny voices
Ari ate chili today for the first time; I hope it agrees with her. I smushed the beans in half and also fed her some of the broth. I wasn't going to give her any, but she demanded that I share whatever I was eating. She was dubious at first, but then she ate and ate. She even ate a little piece of bread (with gusto) along with the chili. I had to cut her off after a bit because I was worried about the effect of the acid and spice on her little system.

In kind of gross news, her increased (and rapidly increasing) intake of solids is starting to show- the last two poopy diapers I changed have smelled funky and had peanut-butter consistency poops in them. Eeeeew.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Avoid Schwinn like the plague

Today sucked.

We slept funny, for starters. I got to bed at four AM (for various reasons I won't go into) and I couldn't wake up, couldn't keep my eyes open when Ari woke up at 7. Around 8 (after nearly an hour of trying to fight my way to consciousness) Thad woke up and took her. Then he let me sleep till 11- which was lovely, but hard on him. Then him and Ari went to sleep. Ari slept till one, and Thad slept till 3. This meant that he didn't get to spend his day off with us. It also meant that Ari's only nap was rather early in the day.

The only thing that passes for useful that we did today was go buy a bike trailer that we hated so much we have to pack it up and return it... by everything I could find out about it, it seemed like it would be good, but it wasn't. It wasn't to the point that I'd've been concerned for Ari's safety if I put her in that thing. And I hurt my hand assembling it.

Ari did go to bed at nine sharp, but the house is such a godawful mess (trailer crap in the living room, basement crap all over the dining room, my sewing stuff still uncleaned, the kitchen an unholy mess from yesterday's fooding still...) that I can't bear to face any of it. Instead I've spent two and a half hours futzing around on the internet feeling like a loser.

Pfeh. I'm going to try to be in bed by midnight- at least I can try to do that right.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Joss Whedon in the credits

Happy harvest, y'all. :D

Not much to say. Thad slept until the afternoon. Then, we went over to talk to someone who talked to us about baby carriers. Then, we went shopping in order to get foods for our harvest feast. We got a very nice loaf of bread from the french (style) bakery down the road from us, and I made a biscuit-top chicken potpie. And we had corn on the cob. Mmmm.

Then, I came home and cooked like a maniac! Food was delicious- Jaime commented that my potpie tasted "healthy". I was like, it has mass quantities of butter- how can it be healthy? He pointed out that his only prior experience with potpie was store and frozen ones... By those standards, it really was the friggin' Mona Lisa of potpies! Well, maybe not the Mona Lisa, but I'm a bit giddy, so I hope you'll excuse the hyperbole.

We had Pendragon tonight. We managed to retrieve the Golden Rose (at long last!), and we found Broderick's rival wandering around, nekked and crazy, in the woods. Anyway, we (and by we, I mean the knights) finally got the Golden Rose from the forest, and who should we find just outside the border, but a legion of Sir Garrowin's knights? This would be, gentle readers, the knights of our most hated foe.

And then Thad ended the game. AAAAARRRGGGGGH!!!!

How does he expect me to sleep for the next two weeks, with that cliffhanger?

NOTE: apologies for, like, all y'all who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. Trust me. It was awesome.

A word with three doubled letters in a row

Monday, Monday. I was up until 4:00 in the morning due to insomnia, but I got to sleep till 10. When Ari and I came down, Thad was still up. He'd done the dishes and he made me breakfast. The downside of that was that he slept until 6:30 in the evening, and then had to leave for work at 9:30.

I got a fair amount done today- lots of fiddly bookkeeping things, laundry, dealing with getting the car fixed.

Regarding the car; there's nothing much wrong with it (and there darn well shouldn't be!)- just that the passenger door won't open from the inside. And a little thing involving the gas cap door. Anyway, Alternative just fixed those things for us. It involved Ari and me going over there a few times, to drop off and pick up the car- it felt kinda silly having to drive a single block, but what are you going to do?

Ari had her first taste of ice cream (homemade vanilla praline- thanks, Max!) today, and that was pretty cool. She really liked it, too! I had to eventually tell Thad to stop giving it to her, or she would have just kept eating it. :) She also ate today: some plum, some corn (removed from its skin†) and some spicy chicken flavored whole grain couscous.

Also, as long as we're on the topic of food- she had the rankest smelling poop in her personal history today. Boy, howdy, am I glad she was inclined to start solids late.
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†Why do I bother peeling individual corn kernels? Corn skin poop. I think I need say no more.