hvac and dental extraction

 They installed the hvac system - it leaked on the floor a lot that first day, but they came back the next day and fixed that.  It seems to be working very well now.  I had the first of three dental extraction appointments, and it bled for about six hours or more.  I went through a lot of gauze, and bought a good deal more because I know there are more extractions coming before they can fit my denture plate.  That was yesterday morning, had swollen some and felt like I got punched hard in the cheekbone (upper jaw was where the teeth came out).   But all of that was on just a few ibuprofen and no other pain medication (because other pain medication does not metabolize for me.. not really fun).   It feels much better tonight, but I took both days off of work to make certain I wasn't 'biting off more than I could chew' with the healing process.  I've napped once today and am about to head to bed again.  I took the nap earlier because I was feeling cold.  They gave me antibiotics, and I've tried to eat a few good vitamin packed things and an avocado.  

 

I bought The Last of Us for Esme, series one and she is watching that.  She had played the game and didn't explicitly ask for the series but I saw her looking at it when we were killing time waiting for the pharmacy yesterday.  She read the entire back of the cover and then put it back.  I took that as a sign that she was interested, and she didn't say no when I said we could get that.  She has watched half of it already - but it's a bit scary for me at the moment because I have enough odd dreams just with the teeth issue.  I don't need more in my brain to be stirred up.  I did watch Jurassic Park two yesterday, but had Mark fast forward past the compy stuff in the beginning and near the end, because I really don't like those bits.

 

I've been doing French and Spanish, and finished all the challenges in a little game called Minbari Lane that is a Japanese town building sim.  The next dental extraction is in August. We also have to go to the school this next week and talk about what classes Esme needs to graduate and make sure she has everything on the correct path for this year since she missed a class last year and we couldn't get her to summer school to catch up on it because of the one vehicle and scheduling conflicts.

How to play Build an Empire style Minecraft Survival 1.15.2

This is another flavor of Minecraft I play in Survival, by myself, or on multiplayer LAN.  If you are playing multiplayer you will have to make some considerations for destruction or anti-griefing.. but this game can be a challenge against yourself if you do not have others to play along.

The biggest thing is that you are expanding from your spawn point, not dying from monsters (much), and increasing resources from 'town' to 'town' as you build across the map.  And roads.  I build roads in all directions eventually, leading to each new 'town' with its own resources, mines, crops and animals.  Each village not only become self-sustaining, but also provides 'exports' to other villages of things it specializes in, or has been lucky enough to have a lot of in its area. 

For example, when you find a village with carrots and beetroot etc that is the time to send those 'exports' to the gardens of other 'towns' you have built, and bring some of their excess materials back to this 'town'.  It is kind of like the Spanish explorers bringing tomatoes back to Europe after finding them in the New World.

Be sure to light all new structures, as you can see there is a skeleton in the unfinished building in this town!  This town was lucky to have a black sheep that could be caught, and the black banners then get different dyes put on them that are available all around the building site.

Start with a single house and garden in each location, for survival.  Build up your tools, your food supplies (We're on MONSTERS mode, and we have to eat!), your bed, your mine etc.  Each additional house you build in the area gets a small stock of food, resources and tools, as well as the furnace, chest, minecraft table, doors, windows and bed. 

Why more than one building?  To make it a town.  To store more stuff.  If you were on Creative you could throw a few villager spawns in each one, but really - I just imagine that the more resources I can build up, the greater the buildings expand, crops, streets - and that town starts exporting colonists (me) to another location via another road, and building again.

Experiment with each 'town' having its own building style, and using natural resources from the area.  See how your own building style develops as you progress building your Empire.

 Some basic supplies in a chest

 A second garden in this town expanding more wheat, sweet berries and sugar cane.

Each town also gets a sign on its main building telling the name of  the town and its own banner motif to tell it apart from others.  In 15.1 you will need to kill a spider or two and build a loom - as well as have sheep and dyes, to make the banners.   The colors of the pattern should represent whatever sheep and dyes are available in that area.  This town was pretty rich to start - so each building got a copy of the banner.

 

As resources increase, the rooms get fancier, buildings might get taller or rebuilt, and specialty buildings like a town hall, library, blacksmith or magician might be built.  Really really rich areas might have a castle surrounded by several small peasant village homes.

 A castle being built with the resources from two towns

This town had three completed buildings after a week of Minecraft days since the 'colonists' moved from the main complex.   When I set off from the other complex I had some food, my tools and armor, 3 wool and some wood.  Everything else at this complex came from the land surrounding it.

The road from the original town, with an unfinished building three houses and the start of a tower.

The original town also had a pen full of sheep

The second town has a road continuing off into another biome, and ready to start again or continue to build in either one.  I might go finish the tower now, or add two more buildings to this one and a sheep pen before I continue on.

The nice thing about the Build an Empire style is that the road is endless, the accomplishments are what you decide on for yourself and over time, it rises and falls at each place.  Just imagine - what happens when a creeper destroys half your village?  Do you build again?  Do you make another colony?  Can you transfer your livestock between towns, or your riches to some central castle?

After a while, what is the history of your Empire?  There is one - you were there.  Form a story in an actual Minecraft book or signs saying what happened where and when, and come back later to read it.  In what year did the Illagers come and attack?  When did you build the cathedral with the stained glass?  When did you set off on your first ship across the ocean?  etc.

Biomes o Plenty 1.12

I really like to play this style of Minecraft in Biomes o Plenty as well, with HarvestCraft - except that it just keeps adding so many windy gardens and so forth that the landscape gets flooded (I've heard there is a settiug to town that down but then I hear there isn't...)   Biomes o Plenty really lends itself well becasue there are SO many different region-specific resources, and different kinds of food etc ..try really hard to get oyster sauce as an export good!  It takes so many ingredients it is difficult to even have one to put in an item frame - if you are doing it all on survival!

I had one game of this style that had more than twenty different towns , each with more to offer, different crops etc.  Eventually, when 1.13 came along, I tried to play this way there but it just wasn't as fun in Vanilla 1.13.  Now with 1.15 they have fixed a bit more with bees, fishing, turtles, ocean environments and more villager things that I have started to play vanilla again. 

bit o bits

We are gathering a bit more for Esme's geology science next year - a ten dollar microscope, some gemstone slice samples and crystals - at the same time we ordered a few little things I wanted for my birthday coming up, including an aluminum easel for upright painting.  This is the first year in a while I have not asked for that specific day off- because my vacation was used up earlier in the year's snowstorms.  I could have asked for it unpaid - but it just didn't have the urgency with my tooth exam already being the Monday before (and unpaid off)  I hope I will still be able to keep my tradition of getting up to see the sunrise...but it is possible that I may have to be to work by then and miss it...the schedule drops in a few days and I will know.  Things might change a bit after the surgeon looks at my teeth, as well.

I bought Esme a set of jacks (rubber though, not metal) and we looked up how to play again - I will state the variations we played when I was a child.  We would bounce the ball and try to pick up as many as we could from the center pile without knocking any others out of position or dropping the ball or any jacks.  We could not drop or catch the ball with the opposite hand - we had to drop, scoop and catch all before the ball bounced again.  The other variation was the onesies, twosies, threesies etc.. where you see who can grab the listed number of jacks in order, and proceed along until someone gets to five, six or your maximum # of jacks.  But, mostly we played the scoop version - and the pile dwindled, and whoever had the most at the end of the group won.  There is a lot of thinking, pre-planning and execution in the game that you don't think about until you are trying to play well.  Esme got consistently better as we went along -but both of us were losing the ball and chasing it across the floor often.  Mark says we should find some metal ones and a wooden ball and compare the difficulty.  This was a little 2.50 set that was at a pharmacy store on display and I thought it would be cool to teach Esme to play.  We still have to find a decent marbles set, too - as that has similar thought processes.

I get another day off Wednesday.  I am still reading Emily of New Moon Farm, by the same author as Anne of Green Gables (and similar theme).  We ordered the mini-series as part of my birthday (it was surprisingly cheap for 48 episodes).  It almost makes me want to take another stab at poetry ;)

My inventor makes her own fun

 Esme gets super bored on the weekends... but she does make her own fun.  Today it was a 'cake' out of blocks, lego parts and pom pom balls that was to be served up to a dragon after I got home from work - and lots of K'nex inventions.  She was also putting pricetags on her coloring book pages she brought home from Grandma's house.

I'm still working on several blankets, a rug, and small stuffed dogs for her and a birthday party gift for April.  So, she gets the creative energy from somewhere ;)

Other:  She asked me why earth was a small word, but it had five letters which was almost as much as dragon which was a big word - 'earth' vs' dr-aaag-on'.. she meant the syllables...  Right after that she was dipping water into a container, throwing it up in the air, dropping the container and trying to catch the water with both hands.  She said she wished she had three hands.  I was flabbergasted for a moment.. but responded with: 'Yes, many people have wished they had three hands, before.' She said: 'Yea, three would be good, for this.'  She said the birthday party girl would not like a stuffed dog because she only likes princess stuff..I said 'so ... doesn't matter.  she's getting a stuffed dog, because we don't have money to go buy a toy - and you like it, right?'  She agreed... and thinks it is perfect as it is although I said I would change a few things on the next one.  As I finished sewing it she said 'there, right there, perfect, it doesn't need anything else, stop there.'  Ha.

Two days off starting Monday.  Yay!

Super Kangaroo girl (unlined cape with ears sewing project)

Super Kangaroo Cape, with a hood, with ears

I love this picture :)

It's not Batman, Mom - it is a Kangaroo cave, in the DESERT. 

Looking at herself in the mirror. It is a nice length and this picture showed it off well.

McCalls pattern 6631
'red riding hood style cape'
size 6, 1940s
I bought this back in December 2011 and finally got a good enough ambition to make it.  

 

A few shots of her playing in the garden with me this morning...

I told her she looked like a hobbit.. and she said no definitely a Kangaroo..

Playtime Magic Show

Sitting with Kitty, Sponge bob and an imaginary friend watching 'cartoon' on the magic show box we made months and months ago.

Having a magic show.  Abracadabra, and he is gone! (not really, he is behind her back) 

Concentrating on her lego mini figures 

Oh, and she wants a pony, that talks... gotta record when that first happened ;)
I had to be her new friend Sponge bob and talk for him while she gave him the 'tour' of the room.. although he has been there for months.  She gave Sponge bob a great description of her room, that he was on Earth now, and not in Bikini Bottom, and that Mr.Krabs can't reach her piggy bank because he is no taller than her and she can't reach the shelf it is on either.  She showed Sponge bob the Earth map she had (Solar system poster) and told him all about her birthday party and Dreamlite and when Gwennie came to play.

playtime

One of her games
a garage sale find from way back

She has been watching Daddy play a new game and also with a mod that allows him to play with lots of hidden features. Esme is working at spelling a few words, not doing too bad. I've been sewing this other toy since last night when someone asked me for something I no longer have the correct pattern for... this is a handsewn prototype to see if I can get another one like this.


close, not bad
Esme put the baby from her kangaroo set with it, just until it gets one of its own ;)

Techie girl, garden pictures and a little garden friend

Our little tech girl using the trackball and listening on her headphones as she plays the Sims game. She is reading a few more of the commands correctly to me off the screen - she has known 'what they do' for a while, but now is reading the actual words for 'call' and 'taxi' and a few others. She is understanding more how not to make her people 'all red unhappy', how to get them around 'downtown' and why it isn't such a good idea to use all your money to buy balloons and teddy bears and paint your person into a corner so they can't get out. She puts the headphones in and guides herself into the game, pauses, saves and shuts down when she is done... it's pretty cool!

We have also been playing 'soccer' in the mornings the past few days - but it was interrupted by red shirts, blue shirts, referees and dragons and octopi this morning. She surprised me by turning our kicking practice into a 'run down the court and score a goal' practice.


Strawberry blonde sunflowers


tomatoes, black krim and lemon boy
they went into spaghetti!


Bees pollinating in our corn early this morning



I was pulling up grass and weeds in the garden and this little guy popped up! I ran inside to get the camera and took some pics of him before setting him off into our corn so he wouldn't be stepped on until I was finished weeding.

Catch a magnetic fish

Last night when I was sewing Esme was playing her usual 'pretend' catch fish with a piece of ribbon, but the cat took off with the ribbon. She found this necklace chain in one of my containers on the worktable and started using it - without me really paying attention. Then she actually CAUGHT a 'fish', one of the magnetic letters in the box. She is still playing it this morning. She really needs supervision though - because she already fell off the table once doing it - and I caught her in midair because I was sitting at the sewing machine. *sigh* - But she falls off chairs and our bed or her own bed with and without trying all day long *ha*... and at least now she is holding on to the edge of the table and gripping with her feet when she does it.

I finished a pair of pants for Lizzie - also out of a remnant I had. I put a wide hem on the bottom and made the elastic the waist size her hip measurement matched.... since it is elastic it should adjust okay. I'm bringing an older pair of Esme's pants (the red doggie ones) to work for a younger girl (Gwinifer) to try - if they fit her okay I'll use the old pattern to make hers, if they are too short on her then I'll make Esme's new pattern for her pants. I already know she fits the raglan shirt pattern really well and have a yard and a half set aside especially for her.

Little bits: This morning Esme said 'Esme red girl, Mumum grey girl, Daddy grey ... Daddy!' I pointed out that Daddy's shirt was actually green. Then she got this look and said 'Oh let's see - let's see the green' and went over to him at his desk and inspected his shirt. 'Oh, that's the green, ok nice.' His undershirt is grey, though... so she was partially right ;) She has been making a few good observations the past few days I can't remember all of them right now.

WordWorld

Esme likes this game on WordWorld: Dog's Letter Pit. She laughed at loud at the dog jumping and grabbing letters and somersaulting etc. She talked to all the characters and expected them to talk back to her :) I wish there had been more interaction in the animals' houses because Esme was really interested in those scenes. On the game it was NOT a surprise that she was able to point to any letter they asked (except 'E', which they say weird and she wagged her little finger at them and said 'no that is E' the first time as if they had tricked her). What DID surprise me was when she would hear a word she knew, like CAT or PIG and point out the letters on the screen that go to that word without being asked letter by letter. Yep - she's holding out, or just beginning to grasp certain ideas and uncertain if she has them right yet. She loved the game, and wanted to share the link.

None of the other games on the site seemed quite as intriguing or educational for her. The 'pizza' game (pig character) she liked but couldn't understand why they only wanted the words beginning with the letter on the screen - she wanted ALL the words - and was very disappointed I was waiting for certain ones. It also moved just a little too fast for her - I'd love it if there was a 'still' option on that game - she could probably actually play it then - take time to think about what they are asking and not have to 'catch' words flying by.

Rainy rainy days and old projects come back

I made this dress when Esme was four months old. I don't think I ever posted it on the blog - just on my flickr account. It was supposed to be a one year size - and I never completely finished it because I was annoyed by the seam tape in the armholes. I finished it today - BECAUSE - it fits Esme now. And she is in size 3 and 4 vintage patterns... so either I messed up at the time or the 'new' pattern I had made it out of had the sizes really off compared to the vintage. That is true in women's sizes but I didn't think it was in kid's sizes. Anyway, I finished the hem and added it to the pack of things that fit her now. I doubt the seam tape will wash well, but it's better than hiding away in the storage box forever. I put her Christmas dress from 2009 (in the pictures) away in the storage box. It is still in such nice condition and I would love her to have it when she is older.

Esme is doing something odd today - climbing up in my lap and then squeezing her eyes really tight and sitting there clutching me. She was either afraid of the lightning/thunder or about to sneeze.. we were trying to figure it out. We both slept for twelve hours straight last night so I was wondering if she is coming down with something. I took her temperature and it was normal. I asked her if she wanted a bath and she stopped doing it and ran to the bathtub, happy as could be. She's done it a few more times today but the rain is just now clearing up - so we'll see if it continues. Mark says he's seen it before, but didn't know what she was doing then, either...

Now that the power is back on (it's been out so many times this morning) I'll dig on my worktable and see what else I can find. Maybe I'll finish the hem on the size 5 dress and put it in the storage box. Then I have several pairs of pants to make when I get longer strips of time to work with.




Pictures of Esme playing with a ram sheep (Grandma's) and a frog last night. She is putting blankets over them because they are cold. The "blankets" were cleaning cloths I've made and were sorted out of the regular laundry in order to go back downstairs to the linen shelves.

NOTES Finished the size 5 and put it away. Finished a pair of shorts to match the blue sundress. Still have the others waiting for me over there -- thinking what I'd do with all this fabric if I didn't have a little girl that could practically use clothes.... as in: there will be a day she doesn't WANT me to make clothes for her - so what else will I do? haha. I do a little quilting but it isn't as interesting as the '3D' part of making clothes. And - it takes a lot more fabric and more time to make clothes for me!

I made Esme some cardboard houses with roofs that come off. She likes it - a good cheap toy! She put her Playmobil grandma and little girl in it and they asked if the other was home, etc... I'll have to make her something bigger when I have more time. Mark also made Esme a pair of pipe cleaner glasses and she was really excited about that toy :)


Then I drew a happy monster. Esme was scared of him before I had him offer her an apple. Then she wanted an orange instead. Then she thought he was friendly and had to have a hat and shoes - and the bird flying overhead had to have a hat and shoes, too.