They’re also a winter-themed side, which plays into “mint”. As for the tower, well, not all puns on a side play into the same theme: Spacerock’s tower is called Jenga, after all.
And the story arc dropdown in Girl Genius typically updates about dozen new titles at a time, then goes quiet again until the next burst.
As for the “already,” if you read the “Elephant in the Room” update at the bottom of the page, Rob says he’s going to be publishing updates on a M-W-F schedule until Xin is ready to resume her duties.
I don’t know; it makes sense for a croakamancer to think that way. I mean, here she is being presented, for the first time in her life, with her very reason for existence.
As an aside, from the previous update, I quite agree with Tommy. I, too, would much prefer to tap an elf (of any sort) rather than a gobwin, goyle, gump, or twoll.