5 misc.

--Kidlet's cloud observations this morning. "It's a dog! Cheetah! Bear! Dragon!"

--There has been no precipitation or wind for so long that when the powerhouse winds blow today, it picks up all the dust and carries it across the valley up the other side, making it look like there's a rampaging smoky fire on the foothills.

--Took an exam today. Now I'm free to release all those facts to the ether.

--I'm wearing a striped shirt, skirt, knee socks and clogs today. I even got to wear my February Lady sweater (photo to come later today). Yippee! Loving the cool.

--Thinking about making pear crisp tonight. I'll be the only one to eat it.

Day Two

It must be Autumn.

I have my first exam next week.
I can't stop my desire to knit knit knit.
I want to bake apple pie.
The colors aren't lying.

Sometimes, I can even wear a light sweater in the morning. However, I'm still awaiting the day that knee socks appear with my skirt, as well as the debut of my sweaters that I knit in the Spring. I'm not very patient. Maybe next week the high desert heat will relent? Just for a day? One can hope.

(Has anyone else noticed that blogger flattens the color of their photos? Or is a conspiracy to get me to move to another blogging platform?)

The Ups and Downs aka the Randomness that is My Life

I cut the last set of flowers from the garden; the rest are starting to look past their prime. The patch of yellow on the mountaintop grows daily (and has been for two weeks) and the fall colors are starting to make their presence known in the valley. I'm feeling the need to prepare for hibernation. :)

It was quite a weekend. Our old timer, Kiko, presented us with a mysterious mouth/jaw/nasal cavity/ear canal/eye mystery and after spending buckets of money at the vet, we are no closer to solving the case. She's on some antibiotics and it seems like she is getting better but she still won't yawn (although she's doing some tentative mouth opening, as if to test. Oh, if only you could talk, Kiko!).

Kidlet has been in a mood and a half. She's cranky one minute, manic the next and she's eating lighter than a bird. My mom said "perhaps, it's a growing spurt?" Something is going on and I hope it goes on its merry way soon (ha ha).

Last night, I dreamed of people who were floating up near the ceiling while they were in a meditative trance. I dreamed of a psychopath at a dentist. I dreamed of being sneaky. I'm tired. Is it the weekend yet?

Singin' in the...

We recently watched "Singin' in the Rain" with Kidlet. She adores it. The music, the dancing, the funny lady (Jean Hagen) who says "I cain't stand'em"...this movie speaks to Kidlet. We downloaded the soundtrack and we were singing along on the way to school today.

Wish it would rain here. A few drops fell last Saturday but I'm ready for a break in the summer weather. On Sunday there's a break in the heat and I'm going to make french onion soup (even though 82 degrees does not really constitute soup weather).

I need to spend some quality time with my schoolwork this weekend. We are having a test in just over a week and I feel I have a jumble of random information floating around. Sociology just isn't sitting well in my history brain. And while I must toil at teaching myself how sociology ties into the different feminisms, my post-concussiveness is telling me it's time to slow down. When someone finds the magical response to the age old question of "how do I balance what I must do with relaxation?", please let me know.

In my attempts to eek in a little relaxation, I been sneaking a watch of 8 1/2 the past two days. Anouk Aimee is simply gorgeous. Makes me want to cut my hair and wear a pair of very hip glasses. Actually, she looks a lot like my mama did at that age.

Figgy

I bought some gorgeous figs last week at the farmer's market. They were at their prime, gently sweet and ready to pop right into my mouth (and that's exactly what I did).

This week, I didn't make the farmer's market but ended up buying more figs at the grocery with sweet memories of last week's iteration dancing through my head. Well, as you can guess, they weren't as perfect as the farmer's market version. Some were borderline smooshy and others were still hard. And of course, some were just right (but still not as sweet as last week's gems). I decided to try and do something different with them and make some jam. I've got extremely limited experience with canning so I looked up "refrigerator fig jam". I found a recipe, whipped it up within a half hour and ta da! The mediocre has turned into rosy ruby deliciousness.

Recipe found here.

Last of the Balloon Posts for 2009

We stumbled down the hill. It was a warmer than in past years.


But it got chillier just before dawn. The sunrise was amazing.

The girls played they were bunnies and waited for their favorite balloons to be inflated (the buzzy bees and the big bunny).


I rather liked Tony the tiger.

We watched Sunday's balloons from the house after awaking at a 'normal' hour. It was lovely. And now it's officially Autumn in my book. I'm so ready.

Cookies, anyone?

I've got about three dozen left. A woman can eat only so many cookies. Really.

So grateful for the hubby who is cooking dinner for me since I'm ridiculously tired. I'm not good on four point five hours sleep. More photos from "Balloonacy 2009" soon.

Just another Friday morning commute...

Yes, it's true. It's sneaking in...

during the night, changing the colors.


The plants are losing their "juiciness" and starting to set seed.


I know the hints have been here for a week now but...


it's still 90 degrees daily! Ugh! Can't the weather change too?

But the balloons are here so it's final, autumn is on its way.

Tomorrow morning, we will be up at the crack of dawn (who am I kidding? It'll still be thoroughly dark.) to stumble down the hill with many parents and kidlets to have coffee and chocolate chip butterscotch cookies under the glow of the balloons. The usual photos will follow.

***

The rest of my weekend will be all about fitting in time to write a "mini research paper" on sex and gender. This is something I found out about a week later than one would hope due to my professor's unusual tactic of not announcing assignments in class, only on our internet campus. A bit of a surprise to me, to say the least. It doesn't matter. I'm happy I spent last weekend knitting instead of writing. One of these days I'll actually take photos of all these knitting projects that I've been working on since the beginning of summer(!).

Enjoy your weekend, all! I will (except for the writing part...heh heh).

Change?

Noted this morning...

Geese flying overhead, honking, honking.
Yellow leaves appeared overnight on the morning glories.
A few leaves on the creeper have turned red.

Could it be? Could these 90 degree temperatures being lying? Autumn, I'm ready.

Glad

Three day weekend almost here. Glad.

This just found...

This blog, ephemera assemblyman, is going to keep me filled with inspiration for quite a while. Wow. If you like olde timey illustrations, you'll fall in love too.

I have this photo as my wallpaper on my work computer. I know if I could be there and turn around, the ocean would be somewhat obscured by light fog, but you'd definitely hear it swooshing the shore. It's a quiet beach with no other people around due to the couple mile hike it takes to get there. I'd really like to be there today. Anyone else for Oysterville, Washington? I know of an excellent fish market where we could buy dinner.