Happy November!

It's crazy how fast the fall semester seems to go by. It seems like just yesterday I was fashioning capris and tank tops. Today I walk to school and it's dark and only 25 degrees! I'll take it though. The trees, the smells, the food, it's all worth it.

P.S. The trees have been really pretty in Manhattan this year.

Paper Willie

Since I was gone for the weekend I missed a football game, the homecoming game actually. This sad Willie above was a rather amusing sight to walk by on my way to school Monday morning. That afternoon, when I walked home, some of the fraternity guys were burning it. That made a lot of smoke.

Halloween Party

On Saturday the 27th, I went to Wichita for Jayme's tuba recital. She did a very good job. I'm really glad I got to go. That evening, her and Mom had a Halloween Party at Mom's house. People from their work came. Most of them with kids and almost everyone (adult and child alike) was in a costume. Above is Oliva. She went all out and even put in fake piercings! It was quite cool.

Another noteable thing is that Shannon and I found 5 Wii's at Best Buy. So we called my mom and decided to pick her up one. So I took it down with me, along with DDR: Hottest Party and our 2 dance pads. It was really fun to watch everyone play! Above is Lianna (?) and Taly (?), Jayme's friend Jessica's, daughter and sister. It was cute.

Silly Pumpkins

Here are some silly pumpkin carving templates we saw in Hobby Lobby. The howling poodle is what caught my attention.

Hi. My name is Richard.

Friday night we did a fund raiser for the hockey club. We provided valet parking and coat check for the Beach Art Museum. We went to Applebee's for dinner afterwards. A few things to note about this. First, I don't really like Applebee's and I always forget this. There just isn't much to get there that is good. And the good stuff, isn't really that good.

The other note is a story. Our first server left halfway through serving us. He basically just got us drinks and took our order, maybe refilled drinks once, even though we could have used more. Anyway, our new server, Richard, was all involved and made sure he knew who was drinking what and what every one got. He apologized for the other guy having to go and made a rather large deal of a small thing. But that's cool, he was at least attentive to our drink situation.

So, we order, eat, and then go to pay. He brought the bills and we got out our credit cards (Chris paid for he and Nette, I paid for Shannon and I). Eventually, Richard came back for our credit cards and then asked "Can I see some ID's?"

The first thing I thought was, "uh, we didn't get any alcoholic drinks..." But, he looked serious and so we gave him our ID's. He asked if we were surprised by this and then went on to tell us about how he had is card number stolen and it was a real bother to get it straightened out. That was enough to be annoying because really, the reason we are to sign the back of the cards is so the server can validate that it is indeed our signature on the bill. This isn't even the point.

He checks my card and says, "Woah, is that your real name?" I thought, "uh...yeah..." He follows it up with, "Your last name?" I said "uh...yeah..." but was really thinking, "no, it's my first moron." Perhaps realizing his overwhelming stupidity, he blabbers about how it's not a very common name (which is not correct) and then says "Hey my first name's Dick."

What an idiot.

Essences

In My Sims you build houses and furniture and then paint them with essences. Essences are things that you shake off trees, fish for, get from people, prospect, and the such. When prospecting, you walk around with a little detector and it beeps, you stop and dig and the essences pop up and you collect them like coins. One of the essences is purple crayon. So when I was walking with Shannon and happened upon this generic purple crayon, or essence, I thought it worth sharing.

Food and Games

Shannon has been giving me many fun things for my birthday week. So far I've gotten nifty-gifty "The Office" pens, Big Brain Academy, blueberry almond oatmeal, yellow curry rice mix, asparagus risotto mix, My Sims, dark angels green paint, and a garlic press.

Now some of it is just stuff we needed/ran out of. But some of it is purely fun! The two games are very fun to play and I have put in about about 11 hours between the two since Monday evening.

School on the other hand, has been rather hard. We have a really nasty STAT 860 test on Wednesday that was last Wednesday moved to Friday moved to Monday moved to Wednesday. Jeepers. I just want to get it over with.

Oh, and the weather has been real nice lately. It's cooling off and raining a bunch. We have finally had reasons to make soup and our new Hot Apple Cider Tea. That stuff is good.

A Festival of Pirates

Well, a week back we went to the KC Renaissance Festival again. Good times were had and neat things were purchased. Mom, me, Shannon, Jenette, Chris, and Nicole dressed as pirates. Jayme wore the very first renaissance costume I ever made. That was back in 1997, I think.

Nicole was so cute walking around in her little pirate garb. She got quite a few compliments and cute gazes. She behaved pretty good too. Here she is having a grand time with Mommy while riding a llama (a rather gross animal).


There was a rather good Captain Jack Sparrow walking around as well. Mom and Nicole took a picture with him and Barbossa (we are guessing). The Sparrow costume was very good. The Barbossa one was only okay. It's hard to look like that crazy half-dead pirate.


Jayme, Mom, and Nicole also rode the elephant. But I didn't get any good pictures. They were all too dark. It was a really fun time. The weather was great. It kind of rained a few times, but nothing drenching. Mom and Jenette & Chris got these really neat slate oil lamps. Jenette also got a really cool piece of art work. It is too neat to try and describe. The artist's name is Renae Taylor.

Also, Jenette got an ocarina for her fairy costume. It's a little whistley type device. Chris played us some music on the was back. There is nothing to see. You just have to listen.

Go Cats and Kilts

Yesterday was the last K-State football game I will go to for a while. But was a great one. We beat Colorado University 47-20. Take that overrated Buffaloes.

On the way back home after the win, we saw this guy above. He is wearing a sweet purple kilt. Now, I think Chris originally brought up the idea, but we have looked into doing this for ourselves. The only reason we didn't is because purple plaid is hard to come by at a reasonable price. So, it was really neat so see some do it and do it so well.

Fight (again) you K-State Wildcats!

Post game, the team always comes over and sings a song with us. We sang the Fight Song this week. It was about the 85th time we sang it that night. It was quite funny after a while. During the fourth quarter, an assistant director had the band play it about 20 times. That's a lot of fight songing.

For My Sister

We got to the game nice and early. We were able to sit right behind the band with the fans that actually care about the game. Oh, so nice.

Before the band sat in front of us, I noticed all the boxes for each section. Not sure what's in them. Music maybe? But this one is for the tuba's. It made me think of my sister Jayme. She plays the tuba at Wichita State University and plays it well. A little plug...

On Saturday October 27th at 1:00 pm, Jayme will have a recital at WSU. You should go!

What Next?

So. I currently have nothing to knit. I don't really need to make anything, but I want to knit something.

What should it be?

A knit banana?
A sad bear?

Some hot pocket creatures?
Or do you have a suggestion of your own?

Pizza Hut

Last night Shannon and I ate at the new Pizza Hut (Bistro) down by Wal-Mart. It's small, but nice. It is also nice that more eat-worthy places are opening up around there.

Shannon got a sandwich that he used to get back in the day. It was quite tasty. I got Meaty Ziti Pasta bake. It had too much sausage and now that I think about it, it was penne, not ziti. But it was not bad and I ate it all (except for most of the sausage).

Too Many Cars

You can't really tell from the picture. But it was so so so backed up when we tried to leave the ren fest. It was ridiculous.

Toys Arrr Us

With Mom being up, Jayme and Nicole were up as well! On Sunday we all (including Mom, Jay, and Nicole) dressed up and went off the the Renaissance Festival again! Good times. I'll post some more pictures of everyone when I'm not at school. Just know, a good time was had.

Extremely Disappointing

This past weekend was the K-State v. KU football game. I don't really want to talk about it. Mom came up for it which was fun. We got there late and had to sit in the very back, which wasn't fun. And we played crummy and lost, which really, really sucks.

Zombunny

About 5 months ago I started to model some ogres into animated hulks for my Zombie Pirate army. As you can guess, I have not yet finished them. Well, they are modeled, but they are not completely painted. So, Shann's been painting lately and me too a little. I'm hoping to get them done in season (by Halloween). I'll post some pictures when they are more worthy of picturing.

The World of Stuffed Animals

Before we left for home we went to bass pro shop.

It was more fun than I thought it would be. It's a lot like Cabella's, only more fishier. We took pictures with some stuffed animals and tried to find the neatest coolest craziest things. One of those things was this cool origami dinnerware. The company is called Orikaso and the stuff is so cool! It isn't very expensive either. If I had a need/use for it or knew someone who did, we would have got it.

It's made of plastic and the folds are pre-folded. You can fold and unfold it a bunch of times to take it with. They had a plate, bowl, and mug at Bass Pro Shops.

Neato!