All the Leaves are Brown (not!)...but the Sky is Gray

Well this has been a weird year, weather-wise, so why should autumn be any different. Not the first time and most likely not the last. The leaves on a lot of the trees are green, yet drying up, on the trees. Some of them had the good sense to turn to red or yellow but a lot of them are completely confused. We've had snow at least 3 mornings already. It might actually be a good winter for X-country skiing for a change! I can't help but look on the bright side. Its my nature.

I've slipped into the autumn way of cooking already. I see meatloaf and paprikash and stews ahead. I clipped a recipe for Butternut Squash soup from the Byerly's organic & natural flyer. Thought I'd give it a whirl this weekend maybe, with some braised pork.

I'm listening to Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris and I'm about half-way through it. Its a good companion during afternoon drive time if there's nothing new being discussed on Thom Hartmann's show (XM 167). I tend to listen to my book during the morning drive also since Bill Press (also XM167) hasn't had anything too engaging to talk about...this week he's off and his producer, Peter, is hosting the show. They were discussing the proposed tax on "sugared" sodas yesterday but if you ask me it should be a tax on HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) sodas since that might spur the soda companies to start making more of the Real Thing (with REAL SUGAR) again. Seriously, everyone needs to wake up and smell the poison! Stop ingesting all this HFCS ...and don't turn to diet sodas filled with aspartame as an alternative. Cancer causing substances are no alternative!

Back to books, I just finished Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776) and that was delightfully enlightening...and a full use of English, I might add! I'm also halfway through Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, which I'm also enjoying. Its a kids' book so its a quick read. We'll be discussing it in Book Club (generic name, we have no name for our group) the first Tuesday in November. My book selections this year are diverse, owing to the book club. I'm glad Darcy wanted to start one south of the river! Our next book after "Graveyard" will be Into Thin Air. I bought it but I'm not so sure its going to suck me in like some of the others we've read this year. I also have the Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Food, Inc waiting on the nightstand.

Food, Inc. is a companion book to the movie I saw this summer with my friend Dina. This was a life-changing event...not seeing a movie with Dina...although I don't recall another movie we've seen together in the theater...No, this movie opened my eyes and sent me screaming back to a lifestyle that I lost sometime around the time Reagan plunged us into the darkness...and by that I mean the ol' Back to the Earth movement from the 60's and 70's...organic, whole, natural foods!
And nowadays its even more important because most of the food in the supermarkets is full of antibiotics, pesticides and GMOs (genetically modified organisms)...and I'm fairly sure its the cause of a LOT of our health issues today from the rise in autism to the rise in diabetes and obesity, among others.

Fluffy and White

So....its probably not all that fluffy...but it looks like Marshmallow Fluff covering the trees across the street from my office window. Its probably heavy and wet and thank goodness its not sticking to the pavement. Shoveling the heavy, wet stuff is the worst!

We had a flour-coating of snow when I let the dogs out on Saturday morning. That melted away by Sunday and Chris was able to stow all the deck furniture and the grill away for winter while I brought in the serving cart and potted mums.

Today we expect 1-3 inches before this is finished. I think we have 2" already. One of the guys in the office said he only remembers it snowing once in October...he was 9. LOL!!! That was 1991...the big Halloween blizzard that everyone who was alive and in the Twin Cities remembers. I was a programmer at Open Systems in Eden Prairie that year. Chris worked for OPM. It was a gruesome winter because it all stuck to the roads and it stuck around all winter. We had big ice potholes in the otherwise snow/ice packed roads and it was pretty harsh on vehicle suspensions. I'm sure the repair shops had a great season!

There was a guy on the news from one of the local apple orchards. He said the apples would be fine. They just have to get them off the trees before they hit the ground. They can't sell them once they've been on the ground (which was news to me).

So that's about it for the start of the 2nd full week of October. Just 74 shopping days (counting today) until Christmas.

Its October! First Weekend Recap

I finished listening to Club Dead Friday evening and the next book in the series, Dead to the World, wasn't available at netlibrary.com so I had to put myself on the waiting list for it. So while waiting for this one to be available I downloaded Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Different, I know... I'm almost finished reading The 19th Wife and just in time for our book club discussion on Tuesday night! Whew! I have to start reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book this month for book club too! It would be easy to keep up with all these books if I didn't have other interests and hobbies and commitments to keep me busy. There just isn't enough time in the day!

Watched Real Time w/ Bill Maher Friday night and finished several rows on one of the lace scarves I'm knitting as Christmas gifts. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Janeane Garafalo and Thomas Freidman made up the panel - and they were awesome! He also had on Richard Dawkins. It was a good show this week!

In the mundane category of life there is grocery shopping, which I did on Saturday. At least part of it was done at the Farmer's Market - which isn't as mundane as other forms for food buying. With the Carrots and Potatoes from the Farmer's Market and the Organic cabbage from the Co-op I made New England Boiled Dinner on Saturday. It was yummy...and the Corned Beef was consumed at once! However, I have a LOT of cabbage left, as well as potatoes and a few carrots. Its a good thing I'm on a cruciferous vegetable kick this week. I don't know why I didn't do any laundry on Saturday (even more boring than groceries) because I knew I wasn't going to get to it on Sunday! Oh, well...I guess that was pretty poor planning on my part as I don't know if I'll get to it anytime between now and Thursday. I have a feeling the washer and dryer may be tied up tonight since its DD's one night off in 2 weeks.

Yesterday morning I handed out water and cheered on runners at mile 17 of the Twin Cities Marathon. No Rain, it wasn't muggy and there was a little breeze - a perfect day for the runners! There were 35 people from my group, HealthEast Medical Lab at Mile 17 with 3 other groups. The station Captains were great! The first of the wheelchair participants flew past us around 8:45-8:50 and the first runners passed us around 9:15-9:20 with the last runner passing us around 12:15.

The street was continuously kept clean of GU packets and cups by fellow volunteers. After the last runner passed by, the trucks moved in behind them and the tables were loaded on the trucks, and all the recycling and garbage was loaded in the Waste Management trucks. The volunteers worked as a well oiled machine - a sign of good volunteers and excellent leadership! We were out of there within 10-15 minutes of the last runner passing by. I think a great time was had by all!

Interesting after-effect - my right bicep is sore from holding my arm extended for 3 hours! A very small price for helping out.

Chris and I went to see Capitalism: A Love Story yesterday afternoon and it was one of the few movies I've seen where the people in the audience clapped afterward! Confession here, this was the first Michael Moore movie I've seen. One of the members of the House of Representatives who really stood out in this film was Marcy Kaptur - she is a true representative of, and for, the people! Why do people trust corporations? Why?? Check out Common Sense sometime....government is necessary to regulate vices - and greed is definitely a vice, peeps. If you go to see Mr. Moore's latest creation - stay for the credits as its interspersed with quotes and there are many, many groups and people who are thanked at the end - not just the production crew.