I have not forgotten about you. I am just madly busy. Soooo, what's new with you?

Welcome to my portion of CYOB! You're either a regular reader, you Googled "mustache patterns" and got here, or you choose If you think Xinni should stay and examine the ship wreckage more carefully... over on Stefanie Says.

If this is your first stop, I definitely recommend you start from the beginning here. Happy blogventuring!

Realizing she liked shiny things better than boys anyway, it didn't take long to for Xinni to decide that the ship was the place for her. The magnitude of the situation finally started to set in for the first time. Not only was she on an unknown planet with unknown inhabitants, standing in the wreckage of a ship, completely detached from her Melmacian crew and Jax, but she still hadn't eaten a thing or slept, and she felt the most intense thirst she had ever experienced.

The ship appeared to be grounded for good, with no transmitter. She wanted to further examine the ship, but Xinni realized she desperately needed sustenance, so she made her way through the ship that was so familiar yet so obviously foreign to her. To Xinni's great relief, she found packages of food and drink that were oddly intact considering the condition of the rest of the ship. She took big gulps from a water package, trying to get the liquid down her throat as quickly as possible. Once she was able to quench her thirst, she ate an Army of Melmac-issued food pellet.

Feeling the most content Xinni had felt since ending up on this planet and suddenly feeling very heavy and sleepy from the food and not having slept in many hours, she closed her eyes in a long blink and quickly dozed off. What felt like only a moment later, her head jerked forward, her eyes opened, and an unladylike snort emitted from her nose. With her Spidey senses tingling, Xinni immediately sat bolt upright and quickly realized she was in a completely new place. What she saw was exactly like the alien abductions she had read about, except for one thing: there were no "little green men." There was, in fact, one man, and it was one of the last men that anyone ever wants to see: it was Carrot Top; you know, the prop comedian. When he noticed that Xinni had awoken, he gently caressed her brow and then quickly soothed her in the best way he knew how: with his trunk of props. He pulled out a package of condoms and said, "When I went to the store and bought these I said, "Excuse me, but do you have a fitting room?'" And then he tossed them aside and said in a way that made it clear that they had a connection beyond what she could realize at that moment, "But baby, we don't need those anyway." Xinni shuddered and she averted her eyes from Carrot Top's freakish eyes encircled in eyeliner. When she did, she looked down and saw a huge mass in her midsection that was not there when she went to sleep in what appeared to be a Melmacian ship but what she is pretty sure at this point was a mirage. She had been abducted, and somehow she ended up with Carrot Top's spawn in her.

Or did she? Confused, in a primal reaction, Xinni kicked Carrot Top and when she did, there was a flicker and then he changed form to look like, well, an alien. The alien explained his shape-shifting abilities and his love of Carrot Top, who he had seen via satellite. Xinni quietly listened to the alien for quite a while, learning a little about the planet they are on and its inhabitants. In that time, he did display human-like characteristics, and Xinni almost felt like she was talking to Jax at times. The alien offered to go get Xinni some water and she enthusiastically agreed that water would be good, so he left the room…

If you think Xinni should make a break for it and make her way on the planet by herself regardless of her being in *ehem* a "family way," click here.

If you think Xinni should stay and learn more about the planet and its inhabitants with what seems like a friendly being (and possibly the one responsible for her new baby bump), click here.

So, this past weekend, we tried to go to the Boulder Festival in the South Wedge neighborhood, and we could only stay about an hour and a half. We knew there was a fee to get in (most Rochester festivals are free), but we figured it would be a few bucks. When we went up to the money-taking guy, he said, "Fifteen a piece." When we looked at him like he was crazy, he said, "Oh, it's ten a piece today." We again looked at him like he was crazy after we peered into the festival and saw no actual humans in there other than a couple vendors - who were probably sooo not happy - and some other workers and heard the sounds of a rather awful band (and I'm not saying it wasn't our taste - they actually were technically bad). We said, "No thanks," and turned around and walked away. As we did, Greta started bawling. We had talked up the festival, and she was so disappointed to not get to "go into the party." We finally calmed Greta down with a promise of pizza for lunch. Living in Rochester, home of the weekly summer festival, Pat also safely promised Greta that we would go to another festival this week. He found out about a carnival in the Swillburg neighborhood planned for tonight, so we decided to check it out and we had a blast. There were a lot of fun things for kids to do and good food. We got dinner, including cotton candy for dessert; a blue duck balloon animal from a clown who was barely creepy; we made a necklace out of noodles and boondoggle string; we saw a radio-controlled, stuffed fox riding a tricycle (holy random); and we bought Greta an awesome T-shirt with a skull on the front and says "Rochester 14620" on the back. Greta keeps it real (with a little help from Mom and Dad.)

Here's the proof for you naysayers.

In this picture, Greta was staring at the bizarro fox thing. Any time that was within 50 yards, she had an eye on it.

And here is the most elaborate blue duck made out of balloons ever.