What?! Blog Post!
It is getting realllll in here.


Or something.

So it is almost Halloween, last time I blogged was March. I think I need to either give up or put more effort into this. One or the other, this on again off again thing is for the birds.
It is fall, I have not gotten into ADD PUMPKIN TO ALL THE THINGS mode yet, probably because it is still damn near 70 and sunny everyday. I need a chill in the air to feel like fall, maybe a little frost. Alas, the rains are starting at the end of the week so I will probably get into that mood quickly.

Seriously, for you guys who don't live in the Pacific Northwest (by the way what do they call southwestern Canada  I mean it is sort of part of what is referred to as the Pacific Northwest but it's southwest if you are Canadian...unless you guys just block out that northern half of your country cause no one lives there since it is too damn cold, then it is just west.) you have no idea the dread with which I think of the rains returning. Once they start they will be here (or at least threaten to be here) for the next oooo 8 months. I love that they make Oregon so lush and green, I hate having wet feet.
I ended up making a Great A'tuin cake by the way, for Skull's birthday party, in case you were curious.

I just had my grocery budget slashed by $200 so I have had to get frugal. Lots of Asian dishes, they use little meat and lots of noodles and rice. I am making Korean Beef tonight, pretty sure it is in no way Korean but it tastes pretty good. I made Koshari, an Egyptian rice and lentil dish yesterday. It was pretty tasty, much better than the first time I made it. I still can't seem to make enough onion for it though. All the "authentic" (I have never been to Egypt, so I gotta take their word on it) recipes say that you have to BROWN those onions, not a little bit, but a lot, like for French Onion soup only you want them a little more on the fried/crisp side then just caramelized  I used 5 smallish onions and I think I had maybe 1/2 cup when they had cooked down, it doesn't help that I had to uhm sample them as they cooked.
I think I am doing well though, I am half way through the month and half way into my grocery money, I don't really have any meat to buy since I had a good stash in the freezer. I am consistently saving around $30 a week on my groceries (typically actually spending around $75) through shopping sales and using coupons. I know this isn't a ton but I also don't buy many prepackaged products and that is often what has the biggest sales and coupons.
Niko has started school, she loves it so far. I think listening is where she struggles the most but she is adapting well, she seems to be making friends. I will admit I was a little worried about that, I was always kind of the weird girl in class and while I had a few friends (and especially by high school I wouldn't have traded my few awesome friends for all the popularity in the world) I always felt like a bit of an outcast, anyway I could kind of see the same thing happening to Niko. She is a little bit of a show off when it comes to her knowledge, she gets a little too excited about things and she hasn't been around a lot of other kids so she can be a bit awkward. Basically she is already a huge geeky nerd.  (Case in point? She is not being a super hero or a princess or a witch for Halloween  she is being Monarch X, the butterfly who taught us how far Monarch butterflies migrate each winter.)  I love her for it, but will her classmates? I guess time will tell.