Update

Thanksgiving came and went, and I still haven't gotten around to cross-stitching that fence. In lieu of a real update, I'll some pictures of what I've been up to.

Reading:

Me reading "Why are Faggots so Afraid of Faggots?" by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.

Eating alphabet pasta because I let my inner child loose in the grocery store and I bought a ton of it:

Alphabet pasta with my name "TONY" spelled on the spoon.

Trying rambutan fruit for the first time:

Rambutan fruit. Looks neat, right?

Rambutan fruit out of its outer casing. This is the part you eat.

Joy thinks it looks like a weird alien egg.

Building a LOT of keva structures with the kids.

Secondo with her keva structure jail.

Terzo's house.

Temple by me and Primo.

Fancy cantilever bridge by me - kept up by science!

And lastly, a photo of our delicious Thanksgiving desserts! All vegan. Pecan pie, cherry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and a brownie.

Delicious Thanksgiving desserts. 

Update

Well, it has been a very emotional week for me and many other Americans because we just elected Trump for president. And when I say "we" I clearly mean "the majority of white people who voted" rather than "my friends and I" since none of us voted for him. My life is full of people, myself included, who are very fearful of what will happen to them under a Trump presidency. This picture sums up how I'm feeling right now:

Picture of a garbage can with a "vote here" sticker over it.

But since this is not a political blog, I will focus on my daily life instead. In the past week I've started on Season 3 of American Horror Story with Belle, I bought a set of watercolors so I could paint the trees as a stress-buster, Joy and I took Terzo for a haircut and some new clothes, I babysat Mini T, Tea gave me amazing homemade vegan ice cream, a gentleman caller gave me a rose, Cupcake took me out to dinner, and I visited my family so that I could make pasta with my dad and Karaoqueen. I have to say I'm very truly blessed with all of the amazing people around me.

My new watercolor paints.

In which I attempt to draw nature.

Mini T dancing at the barber shop.

Me and my rose.

Joy looking amazing and ready for the ball.

Me, Karaoqueen, and my dad (who is watching the pasta instead of the camera).

My dad and Karaoqueen make pasta.

Mmmmmm….

It was SO GOOD.

I've also signed up to take the DALF C1 French test at the beginning December. It's a 5 1/2 hour test I need to pass to get into nursing school in Québec and I'm more than a little terrified of the test.

I also need to take two different two-day classes in Québec in January so I can be certified as a personal care assistant there. I was lucky enough to schedule the classes for the same week so I decided to turn it into a week-long vacation. I'm taking Joy and Mini T with me since Joy could use a vacation and they've never been out of the country before. I booked the resort using the timeshare I signed up for a while back. I'll probably post about the timeshare later, but having the timeshare meant the resort was essentially free since I'd pre-paid for it by getting the timeshare. In addition to our time in Québec, I'm hoping that we can make a stop in Vermont on the way there so we can cut the driving time down and also visit my friends who live there. I've got two college friends in Vermont, plus Feather's father and sister (and her husband and kid).

Sunchokes!

I harvested my sunchokes today! Yay!

Me showing off my sunchokes.

For those of you who don't know, sunchokes aka Jerusalem artichokes aka artichokes grow as tubers on a tall plant with lots of yellow daisy-like flowers. They taste like nutty potato-like deliciousness, contain almost no fat or cholesterol, and give you lots of dietary fiber plus antioxidants, potassium and iron. They were super easy to grow. I just buried a few tubers, watched some lovely giant flowers come up to decorate the garden, and then pulled up the whole plants when they started looking past their prime. Each one had a bunch of tubers attached! Yum!

Karate Tournament Day

Today Karma and I took Primo, Secondo, and Terzo to their karate tournament. They did an amazing job! Primo took first place in his division for board breaking and sparring, and third in forms. Secondo took third place in her division for board breaking and sparring. Terzo took second place in his division for board breaking.

Terzo talks to the judges.

Terzo demonstrates his forms.

Terzo breaks a board.

Secondo demonstrates her forms.

Secondo sparring.

Secondo with one of her medals.

Terzo and Secondo show their medals.

Primo breaks a board.

Primo sparring.

Primo gets one of his gold medals.

After the karate tournament, I got falafel lunch with a friend and then visited Cupcake's house to work on school applications and watch a horror movie.

Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween. I changed my mind about my costume at the last minute and instead of being Winnifred Sanderson I decided to coordinate with Joy, Mini T, and Cupcake. We did a little red riding hood themed group costume. Guess which one I was?

Me dressed as grandma.

Here's our group photo. Joy was the wolf, Cupcake was the huntsman, I was grandma, and Mini T was little red riding hood:

Joy, Mini T, Cupcake, and me.

My costume was my grey wig leftover from my Ursula Halloween costume of two years ago, a shower cap and curlers from Joy, brown house slippers from Joy that you can't actually see in this photo, and a large white sheet with sheep on it. I used my makeup kit to try and age myself and make some fake cleavage since I didn't feel like wearing falsies, painted my lips and nails red, and added some fake blood so I looked like I'd been attacked by a wolf. Here's me being attacked by wolf-Joy:

Me and Joy.

And here is the rest of the crew:

Back: forder housemate's friend, former housemate, Joy, Cupcake, me.
Front: Primo, Mini T, Terzo, Secondo.

Primo was Zombie Michael Jackson, Secondo was Zombie Flash, and Terzo was a policeman. Former housemate and her friend showed up without costumes, so I lent them some props. I also doctored up Karma:

Karma.

Cupcake and I stayed back to hand out candy. I needed to be home to wait for a locksmith to come over to help me because my only car key broke off in my car door lock. Cupcake decided to stay with me because they use a cane and trick or treating would have been too much walking. Everything went off without a hitch and there was much candy eating and a few more photos when everyone came back:

Terzo, Joy, Mini T, and Primo sort through the candy.

Former housemate's friend with lollipop hair and Karma.

Me and Secondo making zombie faces.

Primo giving a zombie stare.

Me and former housemate.

Terzo and Mini T hugging.