Parentheticals

This weekend was a long one. Baby Andrea was teething again (and this time it was worse than all the times before combined). She was very fussy. On the other hand, she learned to 'jump' (she goes up on her tippy toes, and raises her hands up in the air). It is amazing how that can be cute even after you have had only seven hours of sleep in two days. Alison and I went over to the Poulson's and celebrated thanksgiving there, by the way. I got some people to play my card game, and got closer to declaring it done. I might have to weaken friendly - it can make the decks disappear too fast. I regret to inform you all that I have been killed in a walmart black Friday sale stampede. No-one stopped to help me as I was trampled to death. The thing that is wrong about this, is that it actually happens. Black friday sales are one of the heathen rituals that we still take a part in as a mostly enlightened society. I really hate shopping, but black Friday takes the cake. I have no p

We ate the other half of the maitake mushroom sauteed with butter and salt as a side dish. Is had an excellent flavor when sauteed - hearty and bold, with a slight fish taste. I would highly recommend these mushrooms to anyone who likes mushrooms. On Friday I did not write any for NaNo, so I am not 2,500 words behind (and I still have to write my words for today). I am afeared for thanksgiving. It might spell the death of me. We had another game of 42 Earths this weekend. They met their first brain suckers, anthropoids, shot down some small alien crafts, and got a small vehicle mounted plasma cannon. Things are going well. Everyone leveled up. I have not made too much progress on the motorized bike. Things have been busy, but I guess that I really don't need to finish it until spring anyway As I don't like to ride bike on days that have precipitation, or days where the ground is still wet or icy. We made tomato Nadna on Saturday out of the tomatoes that had ripened in

It was too cold to go mushroom hunting. It rained and snowed here for those of you who were not paying attention. Instead we got our car emissions and safety inspections completed and went to an Asian grocery store. We bought a maitake mushroom at the grocery store, so we did come home with a mushroom on Saturday. Alison made a quiche and put half of the mushroom in the quiche. It had a nice flavor, and was a good texture. I am currently less than 2500 words behind in NaNo (I didn't write much last Friday because we went to a write in, and I watched Andrea, but I am catching back up). To be entirely anti-opaque, I am at 22633 words (and I plan on writing 2500 a day during week days and ending two days early). We tested the new combat system (for Polynesia), and it seems to be holding up to the scrutiny. Hopefully it will stand unmodified for a month, and I can declare the game to be stable. If that happens, it will likely be in January  Perhaps by then I will have the vassal

We got three oyster mushrooms off our mushroom log this last week. They were not scheduled to fruit until this next spring, so apparently we did a good job of growing them. We made a stir fry and added them to it. They had a mild flavor and good texture. I am thinking of going mushroom hunting this weekend - hopefully some wild mushrooms survived the snow. In terms of NaNo, I am following my own plan of working only on week days, and getting 2500 words a day (and I am on schedule). That means that I am "OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!" (by quite a bit). Baby andrea may have come down with a cold. She has had a runny nose, and been fussy. It is sad when she is sad. My card game is coming along nicely. I rewrote the combat again, but this time I am actually happy with it. It seems to slow down the game much less, and still is viable. I hope that this is the last major thing that I have to do. On average we get through a game in 20-30 minutes (and I am talking about a 4 player

Baby Andrea has started to throw tantrums. They are not very successful, honestly, but perhaps she will get better at them. She lays on the ground, and then cries, but if you distract her by asking her "Are you going to throw a tantrum?" she looks at you in a confused manner, and then gets back up off the floor. She has suddenly discovered trucks and cars. She loves watching them, and whenever we go on a walk, she points to them and does the 'come here' gesture. She has a car gesture that she will also make (which looks like she is holding a steering wheel and turning it right and left). Probably Alison taught her that. I just started NaNo. I am doing OK so far (though I am a bit behind like always). I have 1000 words and I want 5000 by the end of the day. I will report my progress here. By the way, I wrote a little program called "Just keep writing, Swee!" which 'helps' you to write a NaNo novel. She asked me for certain features (apparently t