The Peak of Autumn (Old Site)

Today is my favorite day of the year. It is the day that I gain an extra hour as the clocks fall back. You may be wondering what my least favorite day of the year is? That would be the day that the clocks spring forward an hour - and I spend the next month always tired and trying to catch up to everyone else. This year daylight savings came a week later than my internal clock expected it... but I have been enjoying it all the same.

The other good thing about daylight savings day is that it has always signified to me that the peak of autumn has arrived. Having lived in Southern California for most of my childhood, autumn is a season that I felt I missed out on. Every year I look forward to it in Washington. Autumn is truly my favorite season, and what an autumn we are having this year. For Seattle, we have had very little rain and the air was been nice, crisp and cool. I don’t remember a year that the leaves were more vibrantly colored, or that the weather allowed me so many excursions to enjoy it. It’s hard for me not to be happy with scenery like this.

This week was a good one for us, and it wasn’t too busy. We tried several new recipes from a Weight Watchers cookbook that I’ve had for a few years ... and were pleasantly surprised to find that all of them were delicious! We’ve had pita pizzas, oven smores, fettucini with broccoli rabe and chicken, and an excellent spinach and cheese quiche. If you’re interested in any of the recipes, send me an email and I will forward them to you. We have been eating well and healthily all week... except for the candy.

We had a good Halloween and enjoyed handing out candy to the kids that came by. Boone even had a t-shirt to wear, and he didn’t give me any grief about putting it on either.

I was very excited for November 1st to come. I love the holidays, and one of the things that I love about them is the music. If it were up to me, I would play Christmas music all year long. Alas, there is another person that has a say in it. Andy and I have an agreement that I can start playing jazzy Christmas music in October. On November 1st, I get to pull out all of my cool piano arrangements of Christmas music. (I don’t get to play simple carols until Thanksgiving.) Finally, November is here and now it’s Christmas music all of the time!

I also have made good progress on “The Kite Runner” this week. I have been very impressed by this novel - the story-lines, the quality of story telling, and the character depth are better than many books I have recently read. I’m about half-way through and will probably finish it within the next week.

Andy was fighting a cold this week, so he ended up staying home from work for a couple of days. The only plus side to this is that he got to spend a lot of quality time with Boone. At this point, I am confident in saying that Andy is officially a “dog person.” It is pretty cute how they play together.

I got a really cool picture of Boone today just after the picture above. Boone was running around in the leaves under the maple tree, and he stopped for a moment to look at us. It is in his album, but just in case you don’t make it there I have also pasted it below.