Thursday, September 21, 2006

favorite time of year

this is my favorite time of year, when the leaves start to fall, the weather starts to feel crisp. i've switched to the down comforter. last weekend i made beef stew in the dutch oven and a lovely apple coffee cake. i started planning my standby battery of fall recipes -- spicy butternut squash and sweet potato soup, pumpkin bread, polentas with sauteed mushrooms and roasted red peppers, mugs of hot apple cider. the staple sauvignon blancs from the summer are getting moved to the bottom shelf of the wine rack to make way for bottles of thick, hearty red wines we need to pick up this coming weekend. this is the season for knitting, reading, savoring foods and drinks and unwinding.

i just finished re-reading one of the most brilliant, delicious books of all time on the plane yesterday. it's all about enjoying a simple life in france. i read it for the first time back when i was a freshman in college for an english class on writing memoirs, and gauging from the notes i made in the margins, i clearly wasn't in a stage in my life to appreciate it. it was such a crack-up to read how naive and unaware i was. "what's foie gras?" i wrote on one page. "all they do is eat!" i wrote on another. reading the notes, it was the first time i felt glad i've grown up. i'm not wise or cultured or worldly, but hallelujia that i now appreciate the finer points in life, like stinky cheese.

cheers to you, especially all my friends who i hear are working hard, and soul searching about their futures and their life choices. may we all slow down long enough to enjoy the moments of fall.


Tuesday, September 12, 2006

my man, he's the tops

with my new job's hectic schedule, and the stress of fitting into a new company and a new role, i've not been the easiest person to deal with lately. unfortunately mickey gets the back end of my bad attitude. no home cooked meals, the house isn't clean, and, oh yeah, i'm pretty crabby too.

to reward me for my stellar behavior, mickey gave me a surprise shopping spree with my good friend ljc and a new camera (just like
semaphoria's new one, only not sexy orange). all i got him were four stinking chocolates from my trip to SF today.

who feels like a bit of a jackass? bad wife. BAD!

needless to say, the blog is also getting the back end of my attitude, so i have nothing fun to talk about. wait, one thing: i finished a square of my NZ blanket, so now i only have 6 to go. as the leaves start to change, and as the weather turns crisp, i'm getting back in the mood for knitting. good thing, because my stash of yarn grew this summer quite nicely, and did i mention i have 6 squares on my NZ blanket left? must get that done before the year is out.

and, one more thing: chili cookoff time is nigh. we're hoping to break the entry record, which last year hit 18. my jalapeno plants are aggressively keeping up with my pepper requirements for this year's entry. muy caliente!

maybe when i get the new fancy cammy all charged up, i'll take a photo or two of our test chili recipes or the blanket. or probably more likely, of me sitting on the couch vegetating.

Friday, September 01, 2006

babies

our cat ena has this bad habit of getting into my yarn stash and hauling the skeins around our house. we think she pretends these are her babies. she walks around with them in her mouth, making this crying noise -- very cute. one time she sorted all the grey wool yarn in a pile from the fuzzy orange yarn, which she hid behind the couch.

thursday i got home to find this:




four yarns and yarn-items strewn from living room to the upstairs bedroom.