Chili and Other "Adventures"

I made chili for dinner last night.  My regular 'ole chili recipe that I would make at home on the stove top.  The few variations from my usual recipe (because I am VERY flexible when it comes to changes/substitutions in recipes) had nothing to do with the crock pot, but everything to do with what I found and did not find at our local HEB (the commissary is closed on Mondays).

Notice that there isn't one of the handy crock-pot liners :(

My Chili Recipe:

1 bottle Shiner Bock
1 can no salt added tomato sauce
1 can no salt added diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
garlic, minced
2 ribs celery, diced
(*note* I found a pre-diced mix in the produce section of HEB that included the previous 4 ingredients)
1 1/2 lbs of lean sirloin steak, cubed
1 Tbs. Ancho chili powder
1 Tbs. Cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 can low sodium Kidney beans, rinsed
Cheddar Cheese, shredded
High fiber macaroni noodles
Unsalted saltine crackers

Things I omitted because I didn't have them on hand:
1 tsp. ground oregano
1 Tbs. ground coriander
Texas Pete Hot sauce to taste

Combine tomato products, veggies, steak, beer, and spices in a crock pot on low. Cook for 6 hours.
Turn off and stir in beans.
Serve with noodles, cheese and crackers.  Whatever your preference.

This chili is definitely one of my favorite comfort foods, so I was a happy girl last night.  Until the neighbor nightmares returned, worse than ever before (you can read about our other escapades, here).

There was an unhappy (and possibly sick) infant in the room next door last night.  Side note- don't ask me why the bad neighbors are ALWAYS in the room that our bed shares a wall with.  This is just a cruel joke from the universe.

Anyways, as we were going to bed early at 9:30, we hear a few cries/whimpers.  I assume it is just a fussy baby needing to fall asleep.  Michael was agitated, but I assured him the baby would fall asleep and all would be fine.  I was correct.  Until about midnight.  Then it started again... but this time it was blood curdling screams and cries and if I didn't know better, I would've thought someone was being tortured.  Oh wait, that was us.  We were the tortured ones.

Then, after about a half an hour of this disaster, the baby calmed down and fell asleep. I fell back to sleep around 1:30 AM.

Next was the mother of all melt-downs.  From 2 AM to about 3:45 AM the screaming ensued, but this time the parents chimed in.  Yelling at each other and yelling at the baby ("shut up you stupid brat" was one of their more PG phrases), then yelling at the toddler who began a temper tantrum after being woken up by all of this noise at 2:30 in the morning. We fell back to sleep around 4:45 AM, and the alarm went off at 5:20 AM.

This is not enough sleep.  Especially for my husband, who is fighting a nasty head cold, and working 12 hour days in inpatient pediatrics. I am praying for a better night tonight.