Link Ranking

So for the fun of it I have compiled a list of Links, and I will describe them, which game they're from, and rank them least hottest to hottest. Just cause.

But before we begin, if anyone makes a plushie of this I am so buying one. It is a Remlit, and they change based on if it's day or night. And they make the most adorable noises! Like a cat's meow and it's the sort that makes you melt.

My First Sour Dough Hamburger Buns

I used this recipe, and I used the drop-down menu at the top to change the serving size from 8 to 4. Instead of trying to use half an egg I just used a whole one. *shrug* Little extra egginess never hurt anyone. I did not use freshly fed starter as the site I got all my sour dough info from says to use it after it's poofed some, but I realize why it wanted you to use freshly fed starter, it was because you let it sit for two hours. Mine sat for two hours and did nothing. I imagine a freshly fed starter would poof. Honestly I don't think it made much difference as my pictures will show you. I know the recipe talks about kitchen aids and bread makers, but you know what? You don't need all that fancy equipment. I stirred with my hands and I kneeded the dough about 5-7 minutes. Then I broke it into four pieces and shaped into rounds. To be cute for Victor's sake I carved Atari symbols into the tops.

Here they are freshly shaped, topped with peanut oil (cause my butter was hard and I didn't feel like waiting for it to soften up), and sesame seeds.

2 hours later.

I baked them for about 20-22 minutes. The recipe calls for 15-18 but my oven bakes slower than normal ones so I always have to add about 5-8 minutes to any baking time.

Here's one cut open. They rose too tall so next time I'll try making them flatter and shortening their raise time. I actually hadn't meant to let them raise for that long but I was busy playing Skyaward Sword and didn't get to making the hamburger patties till the 1 1/2 hour mark. Otherwise they were perfect.

Christmas

Here is what we got for Christmas. I got the Snape poster, the mythosaur patch, the mythosaur window cling, the Revan book, and the socks. Victor got the Street Fighter IV 3DS game and the Michael Jackson Circu Du Soil or whatever cd. The candy is mostly mine but I suppose Victor can have the mint truffle kisses and some of the 3 Musketeers.

Me! I wore my hair up in a slightly altered version of Torin's Greek-Inspired hairdo. I forgot to get pictures of it as a whole, but basically it's a side-part with three braids done at the front, a knot bun in back, and the leftover hair put into three twirly buns (I did three cause it worked best for me!) and then the three braids I ran around my head and pinned. I put two sparkly pins in. One to hold things in place and the other to hide a messy spot. Since I'd done it in the mirror I was confused about where my part was and spent the whole day showing off my sparkles to people.... which was funny cause I always pointed to the wrong side of my head! I didn't realize the sparkles were on the other side till much later. Also I did eye makeup! A bit of purple. I never really wear makeup much.

Had a good Christmas. I made pancakes with the sour dough starter, and I think they tasted no better than any regular pancake but Victor really liked them. We watched Black Adder's Christmas Carol, then went to go spend time with just about everyone. Emily's back to her old self and I'm happy for it. Her bubble-headedness rubbed off on me for just about the whole day and we had a lot of fun. We ate a good dinner and watched a movie then had dessert and played Uno. It was snowing pretty bad as I went to go home but it never amounted to anything.

PIctures of Bookcases

 Atton on the bed.

Boney plays with the scratching post.

Boney on the couch.

I decided to clean up today. Here's the movies, wii games, gamecube games, choose your own adventure and such, and magazines. After the picture I moved the garbage can and broom and stuff into that corner.There's wii accessories spread across the top shelf.

 

Here's the bookshelves. I have them author's last name A-Z across the top two shelves of the tw bookcases here. And then the taller books are A-Z across the bottom shelf of the two cases. My Harry Potter books are at the end there because I have so many other HP style books like Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages and The Great Snape Debate, and I wanted them all together. I couldn't justify putting them all under Rowling. My Indiana Jones books are all under I for Indiana cause I wanted them together as well. The little tv is for things like the Atari 2600. So far the only other gaming stuff set up are the Wii, N64, and the SNES/NES twin. Though we've only used the Atari and Wii so far.

 

And here's another angle. The shelf on the end goes as such: Top shelf has my Diaries books (Dear America, Dear Canada, and Royal Diaries), then Victor's Naruto books. The middle shelf has a few American Girl history books, and a few medium sized non-fiction books like a boy scouts handbook and a Monopoly book and such, then come some more anime books and various comics such as Peanuts and Far Side. The bottom shelf has all the rest of our non-fiction books. Mainly science and archeology. There's some geology books and historical books (mainly medieval).

Sourdough Starter Update

Pictures behind cut so as not to take up a lot of room on the main page, so...

Skyward Sword

I got to play Zelda Skyward Sword tonight for the first time!!! The non-spoiler review is that I very much like it. There are a few things that are weird. Savepoints, for one. Really? Save-points? Really? *sigh*

I don't like having to point the wiimote at the conversation answer. You know like how someone says "Hey, Link, can you help me with this?" you have to point your wiimote at your answer! I just know I'll mess that up at some point.

Also, any girls hoping for another Twilight Princess-style Link is out of luck cause this Link ranks pretty low in my book. He ranks lower than the OOT Link even. It's his lips. They're just... weird. Squinty-eyes at the corner are weird too but that could be cause they're above the cloud line and the sun glares? Dunno. But he is one ugly Link. Twilight Princess Link is pretty hard to top, though.

On the subject, who gave Zelda bangs? It's weird but not really so horrible. I'm actually kinda used to it now.

I like how they made the bird symbol more relevant and integral. I have the bird + triforce symbol on a tshirt, so that makes me happier cause now it has more meaning.

The wii motion plus is awesome. You know how you can always slice signs? Well when you slice them now they break the way you slice them. If you go diagonally up they break diagonally up then fall apart! Also, the spin attack is sooo much easier than it is in Twilight Princess. In Twilight Princess if I ever did a spin attack it was totally by accident.

I guess I haven't really played long enough to have any real spoilers. I do have one minor one ahead here:

Mia is adorable! The sounds it makes make you want to hug it and love it and give it everything you can! So cute! It was heart wrenching when it turned evil at nighttime (I actually jumped when it turned around and had red eyes and was growling at me) and I had to attack it! I felt horrible as I threw it over the ledge, but it started flying and I felt better.

My new pet

This is my first sour dough starter! 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup wheat flour, topped with plastic wrap secured with a hair tie (for lack of a rubber band). I started this at 9:30 tonight, so tomorrow at 9:30AM I'll be able to see if there's progress. I read that in colder climates it can take a while to get started so if nothing's happened I can wait till 9:30 tomorrow night and see if there's any activity. There should be bubbling, so we'll see. Right now it smells like bread dough. I read that sometimes it can smell pretty bad at first as the microorganisms fight it out to see if yeast gets started growing or not. I call it my pet cause you have to feed it twice a day. eek! You can put it in the fridge once it's stable, though, and feed it once a month. The masking tape is to mark where the level is right now. I wrote "mixed" on it to show when it was first mixed. When I feed it I'll mark that too, so I can track it's growth.

Suck it up, Katie!

So today is Star Wars Day, which I'd always been under the impression was May 4th. It was a year or two ago when this started. Apparently some little girl decided to cash in on being "teased" for liking Star Wars. Somehow this every-day story of a child being picked on for their likes (which happens to, well... everyone at some point) got on the official Star Wars site under the title of something along the lines of "Girls like Star Wars too" or some such. And instead of everyone shrugging and saying, "One or two kids at your school said something vaguely discomfiting? Yeah, that happens, it's life, get over it. If you think this is hard wait till you're an adult!" they said, "Gee, golly, really? How horrid! We must rally behind you and label today Star Wars Day forever more! The day when people world-wide wear Star Wars shirts to show their fandom!" Really? I mean, really? How lame. I could see if the kid's friends wore Star Wars shirts for one day to show their support. But all Star Wars fans everywhere? What about all the other kids who have been picked on for Star Wars related reasons? I bet this is a slap in the face to everyone who didn't get this kind of support, you know, the ones who didn't cash in on it, cause they weren't rich or related to someone important. Which, come on, is really the only reason she got any attention. Seeing as Star Wars has been around for 34 years we have a rather long span of time for kids to have picked on each other, so wouldn't that mean that by now we'd have 365 days of "Star Wars Day"?

I refuse to wear a Star Wars shirt today. Some people might even say that by posting this at all I'm bringing attention to it. But I realized I've never posted my extreme irritation at this.

Picture Time

The cats help us set up the double-stacked bookshelves on December 5th!

The shelf pegs are too big so Victor helped me squeeze them in.

"I can has box now?"

This is the start of the December 6th pictures. The bookcase did not stay like this. At some point I moved the books down to the other shelves and used this one for movies and Wii games, bottom shelf is now for magazines, and the Choose Your Own Adventures there on the second shelf up is still that way.

Christmas tree! The filing cabinet has my sewing patterns in the bottom two drawers and the top one has scissors, needles, fray check, pins, machine feet, and other assorted sewing tools.

Here is how I attached the two bookcases. 

And here is how they are attached to the wall. (this is on top)

Here's the corner by the door where we have the board games.

The outlet sticks too far out so I bought a 3.5" picture frame at the dollar store and tore off the backing. Fits great and looks elegant.

Now these ones are from December 7th. I put a bookcase on top of the tv cabinet.

Boney on Victor's truck.

Atton on Victor's truck.

Taken on December 11th. Boney sometimes puts his paw on his face when he sleeps. To block out light?

Bonecrusher on December 12th.

Boney and Atton.

I attempted to make candy canes but I believe I ran them too hot. They were unmanageable and cooled before I could pull them. So after they dried we chipped them out of my cookie sheets and into this bowl. I did get one reasonably longish half-way twisted stick, but the picture is on my mom's camera. The chips taste good!

This is from today, the 14th. My somewhat cluttered kitchen area. It's a little better now than it was earlier. The bucket has flour in it and it's out cause I made peanut butter cookies last night and braided egg bread today. We have the propane for the stove in that cubby next to the stove behind the dish drainer. To use the stove top we set the stove on the floor. I have cleaners in the cabinet under the stove. The cats adore that cubby next to the cabinet so I'm leaving it empty for now. I have two bookshelves next to the sink stand that I have dishes and cookware on, for now. I'll double stack them at some point and get something larger to put between them and the sink stand.

Bit of an update

I know it's been a while. I wasn't going to post until I had pictures and I keep putting off taking pictures because I want everything to look good first. Well, I'll just post a text update for now and see if I feel like taking progress pictures sometime.

I got bookshelves in and arranged as I did previously post pictures of. But now I've filled them with books, movies, wii games, and cds. I have tall food-stuffs on top of the double-stacked bookshelf (like juice, oils, etc). I have a bookshelf on top of the tv cabinet and has light food in it like Helpers and macaroni and cheese and brownie mix. The stove is now where the water jugs were. I have a little end table in front of the cabinet that has a dish drainer and dish pans on it, as I discovered the sink is too big. I have bookshelves next to that. I think my eventual plan is to get a cabinet thing (not sure what, I don't have anything in mind so I'll have to browse) to put next to the end table so I have a larger counter space and an area to store larger kitchen things. Then I'll double-stack the two bookshelves I have now. I'll have to browse the kitchen space makers and stuff Wal-Mart has to see if anything pops up and says "I'll be usefull!"

After the kitchen is set up I'll bring in my sewing machine and serger and make those curtains I keep saying I'll make

I started repacking things from boxes into crates. So far it's just been misc stuff that was in boxes I unpacked, like shirts and some of my Star Wars vhs sets. And the various Atari 2600s and their controllers. Tomorrow I'll start one of various dishes I won't be needing right now, like these mini-plates I guess are meant for deserts. And the large Halloween cup I have. And a Batman kiddie cup I couldn't pass up a few years ago cause I knew by time I had kids and they were old enough to use it I either wouldn't be able to find it again or it'd be expensive.

I keep meaning to bring in the large tv cause I think I know where to put it but I want to test and see if it fits. Also after the mini-tree we have on the filing cabinet (which is at the end of the line of bookshelves under the window) comes down I'm going to move the bookshelves down and the cabinet over so that it is between the tv cabinet and the bookshelves and we can set the little tv there so Victor can play his Atari.

It is a good feeling to empty out boxes and burn them.

In order to keep the lettuce from freezing we put it in a bag right in front of the door and this is the best I've ever had it keep! I've had it in front of the door since Tuesday and today, Saturday, it doesn't even have a hint of brown on it and it tastes fresh, like we just bought it today! So perhaps when I used to store lettuce in the fridge I was actually killing it? hm.

Also, had a stupid Random Event happen at Neopets and now my Xweetok is a baby! AUGH! Now I have to pay nearly 100,000NP to buy a paintbrush to get her back to normal. I guess if I have to pay a ton of Neopoints for a brush I'll go ahead and see if I want to paint her any other color. She used to be red. Now she's a pink and purple baby, ick. Someone on the Help forums told me I could trade her as baby pets are worth something but I dunno. I don't think I'd really want someone else's pet because they would probably have a stupid name and I don't really have a different kind of pet in mind that would be my "dream pet" that I could trade Lexia away for. I just don't know. It's not like I'd be losing out a lot cause I've been reading books to my Quiggle so it's not like I'd lose a ton of book readings. I just don't know what to do. For now I'm using Bofett (my quiggle) as my main pet and moved Lexia to second. I wonder what people would be willing to trade for her. I don't want to advertise that I would trade her away but I think I am curious about what I'd get for her.

Also, I tried to see the Lunar Eclipse this morning but I guess we were just barely not close enough. I know people in Idaho saw it, but I didn't. Either the moon had passed the horizon or it was too cloudy. I'm guessing it had passed the horizon. It's alright. I tried around 7:50, which was just at the very edge of it anyway.