I know, I know. This September reading report is long overdue. The books have been sitting on my desk for weeks waiting for me to get around to writing them up. Credit the library with getting me off my butt, as they’ve refused to let me renew some books again and would like them back yesterday, thank you very much.

So in honor of Halloween, I offer you demigods, ghosts, and a trio of witches, as well as several other casts of characters: (more…)

That was pretty much our weekend. Friday night, we headed over to Sweetpea‘s for a Halloween party she and her neighbor were throwing. Rudi went as a lobbyist and I went as a feminist Red Riding Hood. Thanks to our friend John who said he was dressing up when he called to coordinate transportation; otherwise, we would have just gone as ourselves. It’s amazing what you can come up with in an hour!

Saturday we got some old electronics out of the Burrow in D.C.’s biannual electronic/hazardous waste recycling. We just missed it in the spring, so it was a great relief to have these things out of the apartment. Then we headed over to Virginia to hang out with our friend Pat and his son Jack and bottle some root beer that Sweetpea and I brewed last month. In case you were wondering, brewing beer is much more fun for a three year-old than bottling is. I head back next weekend to do more of both, so expect a more robust report then.

We had to mop up a little water before we left Saturday morning, but we were lucky in that three straight days of rain didn’t cause any big headaches. I suppose this is why our apartment decor includes a kickboard of towels, though. We’ve learned finally after all these years!

Today I hit the farmers’ market earlyish, intending to spend my day productively. I filled my basket with lots of seasonal goodies and got a lead on a terrific-tasting turnip soup. Rudi and I headed back to the Burrow and ate breakfast, and then I promptly fell asleep for the whole afternoon. I roused myself around 3:30 and we moseyed around the neighborhood, stopping to check out the new music releases and to buy some warm drinks. We took them up to Malcolm X (aka Meridian Hill) Park to listen to the drum circle. The park was clearly created with the area’s original millionaires in mind and is ornate with fountains and benches and a Beaux Arts design. Today, it has truly become D.C.’s people’s park and is where you definitely find a cross-cut of the District’s society. In the spring, you find Latinos playing soccer and on Sunday afternoons like today there’s an amazing drum circle with all sorts of percussion instrumentalists taking part. Definitely authentic D.C.

And last night and tonight we spent as we’ve spent many nights this month — watching the Red Sox play on tv. After a shaky league championship, they came out and dominated the world series, winning in the bare minimum four games. The last time the Sox won, I was in a lonely hotel room in Michigan watching from bed and missing the celebration that would have taken place back in New England. Tonight at least I was home with Rudi who, as a Sox fan, was a delight to watch when that last out was clinched.

We celebrated their victory with tea and freshly baked apple crisp. Winning tastes sweet indeed.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The rain that woke me from a dead sleep in Detroit on Thursday night and that has been soaking us here in D.C. yesterday and today. This is the most rain we’ve had since April they said on the news this morning. It is a real blessing to hear it pit-pattering against our windows and on the leaves overhead.

2. While in Detroit last week, I spent a night in Greektown, where I purchased four pastries to bring home as souvenirs. (Don’t you love edible souvenirs?) Rudi and I split all four and got to sample godly baklava, a custard roll, a chocolate-dipped coconut bar, and a nut and honey filled delectable I can’t remember the name of. The young woman who helped me wrapped each pastry in wax paper, placed it in a white box, and tied it with red string. I was delighted and so was Rudi.

3. Since the weather has cooled off, it’s been a week of wearing fun hats for me. I have two newsboy caps (one in green corduroy and one in brown tweed) that I wore earlier in the week. Today’s was a cute felted fedora-ish number I bought (at a Gap) in London. If it stays cool, I may break out one of my handknits later this week or maybe a witch’s hat for tomorrow night’s Halloween party.

It’s not remotely beautiful to lose a furry friend, but the amount of joy and love they add to one’s life can’t begin to be quantified. Please stop by Debby‘s blog and let her know you’ll be thinking of Chris and her.

I would like it noted here that it is remarkably frustrating to witness someone being micromanaged. I might be able to understand it if an employee were inept, incompetent, or in training, but otherwise there is absolutely no excuse for it. Either trust your good employees to do their work correctly (with you checking in periodically for status reports to make sure there aren’t any hiccups) or DO IT YOURSELF.

I chafe under such conditions and would resort either to passive-aggressive behavior on my own part of just ignoring the instructions that were pointless or to extreme, obvious, and job-endangering sarcasm.

(N.B.: This has nothing to do with my own employment, as Suzanne is a lovely boss.)

I stole a movie meme from Craftylilly’s website instead of creating actual content of my own.

Keeping in mind that I don’t watch movies that are heavy on violence or that focus on war (because they are inherently heavy on violence), are there any on my list that you’d suggest I grab from Blockbuster ASAP? (more…)

… but it won’t get me a failing grade, either, on the Civic Literacy Test put out by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

“You answered 48 out of 60 correctly — 80.00 %
Average score for this quiz during October: 70.5%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.5%”

Apparently a stronger grasp of American economic history and macroeconomics in general would serve me well, according to the ISI.

Thirty-five years ago today, my parents got married on a wooded knoll in my grandparents’ backyard. My father wore a flowered shirt and my mother wore an ivory dress that she and my grandmother made and a veil of lace tatted by my great-grandmother. I can only imagine how proud both families must have been and how excited my parents (both younger than my brother or I are now) were to start a new life together.

Thirty-five years later, they are a little older, a little wiser, and a little more serious. They fit each other like jigsaw pieces, each with strengths to accommodate any weakness of the other. And they still love to cuddle up on the couch, to sing along with the radio, or to hop in the car for a drive together. And if you invite them someplace with a loudspeaker and music, expect them to dance. It used to embarrass us, but now we just find it sweet and reassuring.

Happy anniversary, Mum and Dad. May your next 35 years together be filled with much music, laughter, and dancing.

I’m home from Detroit and will have more to say about my trip tomorrow or Monday. In the meantime, I offer you three beautiful things about being back home:

1. Cuddling with Rudi and the cats on our couch.

2. Hot tea at whatever time I want it.

3. Being the loving person I am, I brought home the pastries I bought in Greektown last night. Rudi and I ate half for dessert tonight and are saving the other half for tomorrow. They really were just as good as the reviews made them out to be!

I’m queuing this a bit early, so it does not reflect the most recent events. Therefore, three beautiful things from earlier in the week:

1. Suzanne is getting married. I’m so excited for her.

2. We pass a small girl who is bubbling over with laughter. I look at Rudi who smilingly asks me if “laughing girl” will be in this week’s list of beauty. Indeed.

3. At our company picnic, they have organized a volleyball tournament. We have several players on our team who have played before and we occasionally succeed in getting three controlled hits on our side before sending it over the net. As a front row player, I admit that I’d never understood the joy of a well-handled bump before, but it really is beautiful when the rest of the action is dictated by such an understated play.

PS: Posey is sitting on my lap as I type this and staring at something intently on the desk. Since I can’t see any bugs and since she often relies on her good looks to get by, I try to figure out what she’s watching. She shifts away from my hand as I block her line of sight and eventually I realize that she’s watching the upside-down reflection of us (and my hand) in the mirror in the center of my computer speaker. Tee hee.

Well, it’s 3:10 a.m. and my laundry is finally in the washer. I suppose it could be worse. My flight to Detroit could leave at 7 a.m. instead of noon. I have pulled out the cat-hair-covered suitcase, although currently the only things inside are underwear and a phone charger. Both are important, but I suspect my trip would be lacking if those were the only things to accompany me to the Motor City.

Okay, I admit it, I am a little further along than that. Instead of putting my jeans away, I have left them on the couch to wear. This would be a bigger comfort if I didn’t have a different pile on the couch that did still need to be put away…

And I bought two mysteries on Sunday to take with me — a Miss Marple and a Philip Craig Martha’s Vineyard tale. I’d meant to finish Anne of Green Gables so I could take Anne of Avonlea with me, too, but I still have 50 pages to go in the latter, so I’m thinking it’s not overly likely to happen.

I have charged my camera batteries. I have paid 2/3 of the bills I need to take care of.

I have not bought contact solution, stopped by the bank, or decided on a knitting project to take.

And I know, I know: I’m behind on blogging. I’d meant to get caught up this weekend or even to queue up some posts for while I’m away, but I got lazy. I probably won’t have a computer while I’m in Detroit, but I’m hoping there will be a free computer lab at the convention from which I can pop in and give you brief updates.

Anyway, if the only post you get between now and Sunday is the Thursday Three Beautiful Things post, please don’t worry. I’m fine. I’m just wandering around Greektown.