The cold slugs on. My hair is still too short. And now the kid's computer is broken.

The monitor has been acting funky for a while now in that, to shut it off I have to turn off the whole power strip. We've been pricing flat screen LCDs as a replacement anyway, as recently as this past weekend when Aldi's weekly flyer advertised a decent sized one for 169.00. Its not even a "no name", rather its a "never EVER heard of that brand before". So we're leaning more towards a Viewsonic monitor, since we've owned one already, and had good luck with it. Besides, its only 20.00 more after rebate and comes with free shipping. I'm sort of glad the monitor is dying anyway. The current monitor takes up so much space on the kid's desk.. but I'd feel guilty replacing it before it lived its full life, and at the age of 6, I'd say its lived its life.

Additionally, the cpu itself is acting up, freezing up when the kids try to play on noggin, nickjr or uptoten (I highly recommend this site for your preschooler. Its absolutely ADORABLE.) This makes especially Connor, quite irate. Hopefully a reformat will save it, otherwise that will be two computers that the kids have gone through in 18 months. Ugh.

I'm finding my knitting mojo again, having finished the knitting on the contract project, starting the heel on the never ending peas and carrots sock, and I also picked up Gretel again.

Pictures tomorrow.. off to watch last night's Heroes. Richard had to teach last night, and I won't watch without him.

and I'll likely take the weekend off from blogging unless I end up with something fun to share. But before unplugging, I offer another list of really cool sites..

Loren, my good friend and frequent commenter here, has started a new blog called The Other Side Of New York, where she'll talk about all sorts of fun things to do upstate. Give her a visit and be sure to subscribe or bookmark!

This cupcake hat at Chile Con Yarne. Too cute for words. Be sure not to miss the viking hat and pineapple hat either!

CNY Menus. I use this site way too often, but its a great resource.

A knitted donkey pattern. Doesn't this just scream out to be knit by me? Well, it will be.. I bought it. And I'm tempted to buy the panda, lamb, and kangaroo too.

Sheri posted this recipe for Italian shredded beef on her blog, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So easy, and damn tasty. I was skeptical.. how could something so easy be that good? But I'm a believer.. and so is the rest of the family. Alex took one bite, had a look of food euphoria and immediately asked that we make it again. We served it on uber soft kaiser rolls and had a green salad on the side. YUM!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Warning: If you are a mom, please do not attempt to eat or drink while viewing this video. Laughter may induce choking.

If you are not a mom, but some day hope to be one, don't let this scare you.

edit: well.. bummer.. YouTube removed the video for copyright violation.

I've found PART of it on Anita Renfroe's website, but I assure you, the whole 2 minutes and 55 seconds was WAY better.

Just testing some new features in the new wordpress. (oddly these are features that have been very available, and quite basic in other blogging platforms, wonder what took wordpress so long?)

Had a bug right off the bat (actually a very old bug, which apparently hasn't been addressed in the new version - since its a pretty BIG bug, but easy to fix, I'm a little shocked it wasn't packaged with a fix)

All fixed but I'm sure I'll find more. Wordpress is nothing if not buggy.

I promised a real blog post today, didn't I?

And if it is, why is it like 90 outside? Doesn't Mother Nature know that October starts next week?

Why why why?

The leaves are changing, and its 90 frickin' degrees.

Something aint right. This is New York.

Nevermind. I just realized this may be a good thing since I haven't had to turn my heat on yet this year. But really, if I liked the heat year round, I'd be looking at Phoenix real estate.

Regular blogging will return tomorrow, barring catastrophic events. I don't have an excuse, other than I've had nothing important to say.

I felt a little better on Sunday, so Cassidy and I spent the day shopping, with no real goal in mind, other than using my JoAnn flyer coupon.  We started at TJ Maxx however, where I ended up purchasing a Lodge cast iron skillet for 9.99. Not a huge discount, but I didn't have to pay shipping either, and that is good.

At JoAnn, I couldn't think of anything to use my coupon on except for a new knitting book, (and what has happened to JoAnn's book selection? They had nothing worth buying.) So I used it on the October issue of Real Simple, a magazine I always want to buy, but never want to spend the four dollars and fifty cents on. Well color me hooked. I.need.a.subscription. Cassidy and I also picked out some flower shaped fondant cutters to use as veggie cutters for her lunchbox (at 2.50 for the set, its much cheaper than spending 9.99 on eBay and paying shipping from Japan!)

But the highlight of my day.. finding Honeycrisp apples at P&C for 1.99/lb.  We found some at Wegmans on Saturday too (and I did buy 2 at 2.99/lb) They were large.. and goooood.. but I didn't feel comfortable buying too many at that price. As it was, 2 of those large Honeycrisps cost over three bucks! But back to P&C.. I bought a whole bag.. and man am I enjoying them. This discovery comes during a week when I was feeling particularly homesick for Madison.

But Honeycrisps are from Minnesota you say? Well.. a yearly ritual when we were living in Madison, was watching every day this time of year for the huge "HONEYCRISPS ARE HERE!" sign in front of Brennan's on Northport Drive. It was one of the first signs of Autumn's arrival for me.

Now I'm sure for the past few years that we've lived in New York,  I've just "missed" the short period of time when Honeycrisps seem to be available. Or maybe I wasn't looking in the right place, (or subconsciously, not looking at all.) In any case, I've eaten three since Saturday.. and I'll likely have another at some point today. But one things for sure.. I need to get back over there and buy several pounds worth and stock the fridge (they can last up to 6 months in the fridge - good thing the new fridge has all that extra space!)

So if you've never had a honeycrisp apple.. get your fanny to the market to get some before they're all gone. You won't be sorry.

Various links, some from my ever growing list of bookmarks..

• How to make a wall sized white board. This is the coolest idea. If I only had a wall big enough to put it on and keep everyone's schedule organized.
• How to get rid of things, particularly, squirrels. Its just about that time of year, when those nastly little critters will start chewing their way into the attic again.
• Its officially Autumn, and the leaves are starting to turn. How about making roses with maple leaves for a good seasonal craft?
• a Java based online knitting chart creator. One of the coolest sites in my bookmarks for sure.
• Equally cool, a random stripe generator for knitting striped sweaters/scarves.. or whatever.
• Molten Lava Cake. A must add because it looks so freaking delicious.

Halloween sneaks up on me every year. And every year I say we'll start planning/making costumes months earlier (you know, like earlier than like the week before.) This year the boys (mostly Dylan) have been asking for Transformers costumes. Not store bought ones, homemade, with boxes and gadgets and spray paint. Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out this amazing Optimus Prime.

But I'm getting off track here. Do you remember this picture from last year?

Well I've entered Thing 1 and Thing 2 in a Online Halloween Costume Contest (See our official entry here.) I won't tell you to vote for us, even though the prize is amazing, because there are some equally awesome costumes entered already.. (like the Optimus Prime linked above!)

But anyway, back to this year..

I think we are going to give a try at the labor intensive Optimus Prime costume for Dylan. And Alex, although he really likes it, keeps talking about a Spider Man costume again. This is sort of a relief.. Can you imagine if he were dead set on Megatron? Cassidy hasn't decided yet (she usually waits for the last minute.. what girl doesn't?) Connor.. I think he would be happy with any sort of kid costume, though I'm sure Nemo would be a hit.

So what are your plans for Halloween this year? Inspire me!