A bit behind on the NaNo tonight, as I was sidetracked by some things when I got in from work tonight (and haven't quite hit more then momentary strides with any ideas tonight, hmm).. but, I got a tiny bit ahead last night, and anyway, what I *did* do tonight was far more important, I think.

Well, alright, maybe spending an hour fighting with yousendit and firefox (which is being ridiculously bitchy today) and iTunes (also inexplicably bitchy), going through the thirty or so songs Megs (my music goddess!!!) sent me overnight, to aid in soundtracking my NaNo. Megs you are amazing. ^_________^ So this is why you'll see so much Killers and Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco and what have you in the last.fm for the next while. (Also because I'm very much liking some of the songs. "Dance Dance" by Fall Out Boy is THAT song! And "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" by Panic! at the Disco is THAT song!!! EEEEEE!!!!)

And then there was the knock at the door - two cops, again, in the dark entryway, shining a flashlight angling down at my door, asking for someone by a name I've never heard...unless it was the same person two cops came by asking for like a week ago. I don't remember, I didn't recognize the name so it didn't really stick. I told them my name and Tom's (as he was still on campus this time), and told them who had lived here before us. I told them that this was the second time I'd had them show up asking for someone I'd never heard of, and they said it's not likely to be the last - they have a warrant for this guy, at this address. (What I didn't say: HI HE HAS NOT LIVED HERE FOR AT LEAST TWO YEARS GOOD JOB ON THE UPDATES GUYS.. why have you not checked with the landlord??) And while these two now know not to try this address again, "the day guy might not", apparently communication isn't so great in the department. (Apparently. Good lord.) So, they left, and I wished them luck on finding the right address.
(When Tom got in and I explained it all to him, he gave me a long spiel on procedure, should they actually try to come in sometime. We also agreed we're calling manager-Tom tomorrow, to let him know this is going on, if he doesn't already. The first night, I know they were going to knock on the rest of the doors in this building...)

However, while all this was going on, I was having a really good, long talk with Mel online, which was really nice. (I miss wandering into your room at night, perching on your bed and just talking with you awhile..) It's so strange, so many of the things she's going through right now are just what I dealt with when I was 16, but.. there's always details that are different, so I can't always give specific help. At least I can lend sympathy and understanding.. that's one thing I was-- well, no, I wasn't really short on it, I had some really great friends through high school that kept me (in)sane, but.. I didn't have anyone older than me, I was the oldest in any of the handful of groups I went between, really (except for SFE, and, uh, the upper classmen weren't exactly role models XD), I was the one to try to keep things under control... but it wasn't long before Megs took me under her wing, and she's what got me through adjusting to college. :)
...I don't know, I wish there was more I could actually do to help her out, but.. I'll always try, at least, and will always listen.

Then she went to do homework, and I.. sorta started some NaNo, but mostly began working on dinner. I bought some sweet potatoes the other day, as I'd been waaanting some, so I decided pretty early on today that I'd make them tonight and surprise Tom with a nice dinner. Typically, I just make one thing, like a big mess of stir fry or ramen or macaroni or whatever, we split that and that's dinner. (We're talking like three packets of ramen, plus some veggies and meat.) But, sweet potatoes, I needed a main course, and I'd spent most of the day wracking my brain, trying to think of something. Considered picking up a turkey, I've been thinking about it lately anyway, but, I'm not going to do that 'til I've done a lil more research I think. ^^; Ham I could manage, but it's pretty darn expensive. So I was thinking of mixing up a warm sort of richer flavoring into some rice and a bit of the chicken we have around, and doing that. Then Megs told me she's always liked sweet potatoes with bean chili. CHILI! I'd never thought of that, but it'd work REALLY well! We'd actually had some chili, cans of it were cheap this week so we got one just to try it out (I can make it awesome from scratch, but that requires a good bunch of ingredients).. and one can doesn't do a whole lot, that was Tom's after-dinner snack earlier this week. ^^;

Couldn't quite find a sweet potato recipe like I was looking for (i.e., something like Grandma's marshmellow-covered ones of awesomeness), so I spliced together a few from the good ol' giant red Better Homes cookbook, and went with that:
Washed the two sweet potatoes, popped them in the oven to hang out for like 40 minutes. Meanwhile, let some chicken thaw, and starting throwing together something for it to cook itself in in a pan. I think I wound up with varied amounts of: salsa, honey bbq sauce, brown sugar, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, paprika, bunches of chili powder, bit of cayenne, I think a lil sprinkling of nutmeg, bit of pepper, maybe quarter cup of water. And a small bay leaf (the idea for which I ganked from the Better Homes' recipe for chili.) Cut up the chicken into little pieces, threw it in there, and put the heat on as low as it would go without dying (mmm, old gas stoves).

As per a recipe in the cookbook, I mixed up some brown sugar and butter to put in with the sweet potatoes. Recipe didn't call for cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, but, c'mon, they needed to be there. (My ground cloves have completely disappeared and it's driving me nuts, those are freaking expensive! So I neeeeed to get over to the Tuscany market, where they have .99cent spices, and ransack for some things.)
Once the potatoes were cooked, I pulled them out, and started poking at them, trying to peel them. Little more annoying than I'd thought, but there again, I didn't exactly let them cool more than a few seconds before I started poking them. ^^; (I aaaalways run behind schedule on cooking projects, and I REALLY wanted all this to be verynearlydone by the time Tom got in, after class and VAP.) Finally got them peeled, started breaking them apart to mash them up... and only THEN found that I don't have any sort of mashing utensil down here. *facepalm* Soooo, we improvised a bit, and between a fork and one of the beaters from my mixer, did a fair enough job. Mixing in some milk made the consistancy much nicer, though it was still kinda chunky. Figured baking would soften it all more though.

Buttered the baking pan, put in some potatoes, smushed the brown sugar mixture in, put in the rest of the potatoes, and let them hang out for about half an hour. Chicken was definitely cooked and tasted fantaaaastic, so let it just sit there awhile. Threw some rice and water into a pot, with a mix of mainly the same spices as I'd used on the chicken, and let that simmer a bit before letting it boil. About this point, Tom came in, I met him at the door all happy and things...
...and then he said he wasn't sure he liked yams. I wanted to cry. He instantly switched over to soothing-mode and told me maybe he'd like them this time, he just hadn't had them in awhile.
I covered the potatoes in marshmellow (pulled jet-puffed ones into mini-sized ones), poked at the rice, and re-warmed the chicken.. About ten minutes later, the potatoes smelled PHENOMENAL, I put the chicken mixture in on top of the rice for its last few minutes of cooking, and actually set the table. :) Usually Tom watches tv when he gets in, to wind down, but he knew I'd spent a long time on this so didn't say a word about it, came over and sat at the table when I said things were ready. It was really nice, actually, sitting down to dinner with him, having a meal on the table and talking. <3

And EVERYTHING. TASTED. AMAZING. omg. I'm still beaming over it. I'm so happy. I completely mixed the chicken mixture into the rice, and the flavors were in *exactly* the right amount, it wasn't overpowering (though it was pretty spicy, thanks to the salsa) and it wasn't in the least bland. Tom decided the rice needed some ranch dressing, which he liked better than I did, but it worked. (Note: this was not completely random, I had a recipe for ranch-chicken rice stuff to go in a wrap, that I think we've done a few times now, as it was reallyreally good.) And THE POTATOES. omg. THEY WERE PERFECT!!!!! If anything, possibly a liiiittle too sweet (I didn't exactly measure the brown sugar, the recipe called for 3/4c., but that was if you were using six sweet potatoes.. I used two, and it was at least half a cup of sugar. heeh), but oh my goodness. Tom LOVED - and remembered that the reason he'd been put off sweet potatoes was that whoever it was in his family that cooked them at Thanksgiving had been loooading them with Jack Daniel's. Mine, he couldn't stop eating. (I couldn't either, 'til he was kind enough to finish them, hee.) He reprimanded me for making such good food, because he couldn't stop eating even though he was full. The potatoes are gone, there's no way they'd last, hee, and there's maybe.. well, one Melissa-serving of the rice left, it's more like half a Tom-serving.

After dinner, he was going to go play something on his computer, but we kept talking... and we talked a good long while. Mostly me talking about my family, trying to sort through some of what's happened to us all in the past few years, and Tom put in his two cents.. for all that he claims he doesn't care about people, he's ridiculously perceptive, and there are times it feels like he's figured someone out after no more than a glance. He sees things very, very clearly, without getting tangled up in the emotion of it. (Really, this is just an outgrowth of his years spent honing his ability to look at his *own* life this way, which he can do inhumanely well sometimes. I'm pretty in awe of that about him, I know it's a hard-won ability, and it's something that serves him very well.) But, he ran into corners a lot tonight, just talking.. his parents split up when he was a few years older than I was, but.. apart from that, it was not at alll the same sort of situation. But it was really good talking with him awhile, he doesn't talk about himself too often, how he felt or his past, and I love it when he does.

So--- crap. It's past midnight somehow. (I couldn't fall asleep last night, it was past 1 or 2 when I finally did, so my clock's a lil off.) NaNo count isn't quite where it should be, but not so bad as I feared. Posting the day's writing over there, then heading up to bed. 'Night all. :)