Yesterday, we cooked a few pounds of pork (still not sure of the cut) with onions, sweet potatoes and pineapple in our crock pot. The meat was sweet and so tender it fell apart to the touch. Yum. We were planning on heating a can of green beans, maybe eat some raw carrots and celery, then enjoy our fizzy diet Sierra Mist with yummy flavors and soy nog. Cantropos was on the phone with his dad and stepmom when someone knocked on our door.

It was our neighbors, the ones I call the kids next door. They are financially worse off than us in some ways but better in others. But they are not food challenged like we are sometimes. Groceries are pretty much the only truly flexible part of our monthly budget and we've cut it to the bone. We get by on about $35/week for everything including those nonfood things you get at the grocery store. And I make one trip a month to a particular local food pantry.

Recently they gave us a case (24 boxes) of macaroni and cheese, which I can't eat (or shouldn't), but makes a decent dinner for Cantropos if he's able to handle the cheesy part on a given day. They also gave us 7 pounds of orzo. Because we may be moving soon ourselves, I have arranged to give away about half of each to other people who need food, too. That leaves us plenty of mac & cheese to supplement Cantropos's dinners.

The kids repeated an invitation to the potluck the pagan friends are having today. I have arranged a ride now and will show up with peanut butter stuffed celery. But the main reason they were stopping by was that they were coming back from a family dinner with leftovers that they wanted to share: a small plate of turkey, stuffing (which I won't eat or cook but Cantropos loves), corn and peas, sweet potato pie, and baked sweet potatoes. We were shocked and delighted.

For today, I am glad I have nowhere to go and nothing to buy until I go to the potluck. Black Friday scares me.

The other day in class I was challenged to find 50 things I was thankful for that day. This is my list. It was Tuesday. I may have time to do today's list later in the day.( 50 things )

NC may still happen, but it's not going to happen before Christmas. That, by itself, is a relief. I'll hunt down and answer Christmas card things now. I don't know if we can afford to send many out ourselves.

Thanks guys, for answering my question so quickly and thoroughly. I will no longer look askance at them, and may look at the journal as a possible venue for a thing I've been trying to write for a few years now (i.e., something scholarly about fiction and people who follow it).

Anyways, there is more news. Cantropos has been contacted by the office in NC, but he's been playing phone tag with the dude. Still, it's an advancement. I'm meeting with my pastor on Friday to try to untangle the mess my head is in, and a strange epiphany may have killed my NaNo dead. It happens. I'll mourn it later.

A year or so ago, I was alerted to the shady, money-grabbing activities of some fan trying to exploit fandom to put content on her wiki and drive up her advertising dollars. It was a wiki about the history of fandom. The existing content was mostly taken from ff.net by a bot. Does anyone remember that person? You see, when I first heard of OFW, I thought it was related and stayed away. I'm beginning to realize I was wrong. But I want to make sure. Everyone is so excited by AO3. I admit being a bit naive, but I trust my friends to know the skinny. This organization and this new wiki (and Fanlore) are not related to that woman and her wiki right?

Yesterday was interesting and sadly, not terribly fun. It was me and Cantropos's 4th anniversary, but we haven't time to celebrate. We mostly played a bit of Dynasty Warriors when he got home. We still can't get the last item at He Fei Castle. We killed all the officers we were supposed to last night, but missed something with the rams so no special item. It's a huge map and the officers spawn at the north east and north west respectively, and the rams are kind of several places. Frustrated. I did finish Xiao Qiao's musou mode, and it's darn annoying how she's portrayed there. After our disappointment at He Fei castle, we did a fan girl only (the Qiao sisters and two fan girl bodyguards) assault on an easier map just for fun. That was at the end of the night.

( wibble about Gilles and going to choir right afterwards )

Cantropos still hasn't heard about an interview from Rocky Mount. I am hoping good things for him, but the idea of moving so quickly terrifies me because of the housing issues. He wouldn't be going to NC except for me, but if I can't legally live with him, we can't afford to go at all. And I have no work here.

Not a lot of progress on NaNo yesterday, mostly coz of the Gilles thing. Maybe today will be better.

I dreamed I was in my childhood home in NC, visiting I hope. The house now belonged to the people we used to rent from and live above here in Rockford. There were penguins wading up to their necks in the water outside the kitchen window, and the daughter took a shower in the downstairs bathroom that left a huge puddle on the floor. The water wouldn't drain properly from the tub. The son told me the house was confusing, but when I told him I missed living there and wished it was mine again, he kind somersaulted up the stairs and said it was cool anyway.

And still behind but moving along: 12756/50000. The villain is skanky.

No, really? I got something done... My NaNo word count this morning is 10723/50000, and here is a new scene (talk of uncomfortable things warning). Last evening, though, I got horribly distracted by Red Cliff. I want to see this so badly. I found a streaming vid of the unsubbed version, though I really want to watch it legally. The US release is annoyingly limited, and I can't even confirm if it will be at the cinema in Chicago that the distributor claims it will be at. I downloaded the press kit to look at the pretty pictures. Have I been playing too much Dynasty Warriors? You betcha. I adore Zhuge Liang, though my go boy to actually play is Ma Chao or even Zhen Ji on easier maps.

Someone please remind me that I have to eat something (even if it's just a Carnation Breakfast Essentials) when I take my vitamins. The iron makes me nauseated and miserable if I don't.