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 )

The good news is we survived Halloween at Cantropos cousin's house. There were more than 900 kids coming by this year. They live smack dab between two hugely popular local Halloween treats. The Mage game earlier that day was good. Our costumes were a hit with the kiddies.

Sunday was much quieter. D&D was cancelled because the DM was sick with flu (hopefully not the oinky kind), so me and Cantropos were home together all day. We talked to his folks in Minnesota, made a strange turkey sausage skillet thing of yumminess, played LOTS of Dynasty Warriors 5 and tried to take Percycat for a walk. The wind was too cold and Percy was not pleased with his attempted treat, so he got wet food when we got back. Also, sometime Saturday or Sunday, one of my Sim Armands got to the top of the political career track. He's the mayor of his "neighborhood" and goes to work in a helicopter. Saetan had to moved to a different house because he kept smooching Chris and pissing off Jaenelle and Armand.

And not least, I wrote a lot on my NaNoWriMo project (3536 words). The first scene is here. More today. yWriter is turning out to be a blessing. I don't have to stick to strict chronological order to keep it organized. This lets me switch scenes and plow ahead even when I get stuck somewhere. There will be more today!

Dilemmas.

We have ants. I can't tell where they're coming from or what they're doing, but we have them. The wasp died. We tried to show it the way out several times, but it probably starved to death. Quietly. Without getting mad or stinging anyone. I feel horribly bad for it. I don't feel so bad for the ants.

The landlord has a party for Independence Day so people can hang out on his nice deck to watch the fireworks. It's a nice location. We're mad at him. Who knows how he feels about us. He's... unpredictable enough I suspect his humanity. However the party is going on right below our bedroom window. I can smell roast pork in my kitchen and... it would be free food and free booze on his nickel.

The boy will be coming home early. We're both timid. If he's here, I'd be bold enough to go. Maybe.

In good news, the crown of the Statue of Liberty was re-opened today to the public for the first time since 9/11. And I feel for the people writing the news articles who feel they have to explain why Lady Liberty is facing France.

On Friday I got paid, so I bought six months on Dreamwidth (for both the icons and the ability to cross post to more than one other journal) for my main journal (There is something silly geeky like me that likes making 1 post that posts in three journalling sites and gets ported over to Facebook if it's public. I have 3 invite codes if anyone wants them. I may still end up using them for something else like RP, because my friends aren't knocking down my door to use them. But they're there.

I also went ahead and paid for my year with LJ. I still really need one journal that has the paid features like watching individual threads instead of a whole post. I like the expand function and I would pine for the extra icons. I don't really use many other paid features. The IJ is going to go free. And I'm paring back what is kept there.

( In other news, I am finding all sorts of old and somewhat interesting writing on my old disks that may eventually see the light of day. )

I had the car today so I went searching for supper. I wanted something Mexican--my favorite things being fajitas and nachos. The problem with wanting Mexican here is that most of it is actually too authentic for my palate. I grew up with Tex Mex. I would kill for an On the Border around here. I haven't had decent nachos since 2003.

But anyway. I kept getting diverted by heavy traffic, and finally ended up at a place I didn't much like the last time I tried it, but that was years ago. So I tried it again. The food was okay. Still too authentic. There was some heavy reddish sauce on my fajitas that I'm not used to seeing. However, I ran across one of the only problems I have with immigrants working in the US. When you work in a restaurant where most of the clientele is going to speak English and you're expected to take orders from them and speak to them, then please learn enough English to get it right! I ordered a Corona with my meal just because it was Cinco de Mayo. When one of the men came by and asked me if I wanted another, I shook my head and said I was having only the one. He brought me another. I can see how he misunderstood, but no one fluent would have made the mistake.

I am not assertive. I couldn't bear the idea of arguing with them that no, I hadn't ordered it and yes, I was sorry it would have to be thrown away, but I wasn't paying for it. So I resigned myself to sitting there a lot longer and drank the damn thing. While I was in the bathroom the bus people stole my lime wedge. At this point, I was nearly in tears, but the worse was yet to come.

Those stupid Coronas coast $4 each. My dinner was $17 before taxes! I haven't been that grumpy unhappy with a meal in ages. Not doing that again. Ever.

If I am going to stick with this experiment, I do think I need to get a paid account for more icons. Linden Grove is doing okay with that, so far.

Anyways, I promised content, didn't I?

You see, it was the weekend where Cantropos'' family kind of celebrates my birthday crushed together with Mother's Day. I'm the only birthday during this period and his aunt completely forgot, but since she'd probably have gotten me a sweater from Kohl's that didn't quite fit, I am okay with this. I didn't get much, but Cantropos says he's still brimming with a plan for my actual birthday later in the month.

For the mothers we bought a floppy sunhat for yard work for Cantropos' Grandma, and little note cards for his cousin's wife and aunt (who are moms) and chocolate for his stepmother, who is very cool. And what I recieved over two days was a very pretty oriental (coz  I can't tell which particular style) china teapot with four little cups, an afghan all my own in many colors, and a gift card to K-mart which we promptly used to buy a blender, which I will use to make smoothies this hot summer.

When I stop feeling panicked about work and housework, I really do hope to chase the creativity that is bubbling in the back of my head. I've been working a little on "A Lone Risk" again, though I haven't gotten a section near done yet. And wanting to draw a little. That last notion is strange for me, but maybe it's just because it's spring. I keep getting these romantic notions of sitting down by the river with a notebook or sketch pad in my lap. Silly me.

I took the fleece hooded cape thingy back to JC  Penneys and traded it in for 2 short nightgowns. Nightgowns are not as well made as they were in the past, but now I have two more. Since many of my other gowns are a decade old and rags, that's a good thing.