happy halloween!

Unlike the past few years, tonight I am staying in and handing out the candy. I got a huge bag from costco last week and after having candy for breakfast the next morning, brought it to my neighbors for safe keeping. Today I carved the pumpkin and made some pumpkin spiders to hang outside. The squirrels must have been extra hungry since they basically ate the entire thing. Crazy. I made a fire in the fireplace, put on a good movie, and am currently pausing it every two minutes to hand out candy. Our neighborhood is prime trick-or-treating area, and kids come in from all over the place- tonight more so than normal. Consequently, i totally ran out of candy after the first hour. This has never happened. Usually I have a bunch of leftovers that I try to pawn off to the last few kids at night. Tonight I had to go next door to steal some from my neighbors. Though I'm all for shutting the porch light off early, 7:15 is pushing it. Hopefully this will hold me over until at least 8:30 or 9.

goodbye vivian, hello stella

It's now been two days since i've had my new car, stella! I love, love, love her, and am still getting used to the idea that i don't have to stress out anytime i have to drive somewhere! It was actually a lot harder to trade in vivian than i'd anticipated. After 10.5 years, i'd become quite attached to her, and felt like i was abandoning a child just because she'd gotten a little older. I guess it's a good thing i was so excited about and in love with my new car or it would have been a lot harder! I love you viv!

Here's the last picture of vivian and me:

And the first of stella and me:

I anticipate many fun road trips in our future!

produce

I've been growing stuff in my vegetable garden for some time now, and finally picked what was left and pulled everything else out today. While I lost a bunch of stuff to the termite poison, the small garden did a good job providing me with tons of green beans, herbs, a couple beets, and carrots. Here are some pictures I've taken over the past couple of weeks.

This is the biggest carrot I managed to grow. Not bad, considering the garden is a raised bed only on foot high. The other ones I pulled today are all cut up in the bowl in the background.

Here are the beets and another batch of carrots.

And lastly, here are the beets (cooked) and some of the green beans. I love the rings of color in the beets. While the envelope the seeds came in said that would happen, I was still excited to see it really happened!

a mile

This masters swim course is kicking my butt. My previous delusions of being a strong swimmer have now been crushed as i'm in the slower lane while men and women much older (and seemingly in worse shape) are cruising past me without breaking a sweat. My problem seems to stem from my endurance (or lack thereof). When we do sprints, i'm good. Kicking, one armed butterfly/backstroke/crawl (or, excuse me, freestyle), etc are all good. When we get to pyramids (4 lengths, break, 8 lengths, break, 12 lengths, break, 8 lengths, break, 4 lengths, done), i fall behind. Obviously this is an area i'm working on and hope to improve upon during this course. Last night the instructions were to swim a timed mile (88 lengths in our 20yd pool). The thought was to time us at the beginning, then again at the end, and see how much we'd improved. Going into it i was sure i'd need a break, but my lane partner (who i'm faster/stronger than, but who has much more endurance than i) gave me a pep talk, telling me to swim slowly, focusing on kicks and said he'd keep track of laps (since i lose count after 4). It worked! I managed to swim the entire thing with just a quick drink of water. My time wasn't great (39 mins), but that just leaves tons of room for improvement next time!

car

I bought my new car! A 2010 subaru forester 2.5x limited in sage green. It's on the boat from japan, so within the next couple of weeks, i should be able to pick it up! Here's what it looks like:

Not only am i happy to have a car that won't cost me an arm and a leg in unexpected repair costs, i'm excited to have one with awd. This means i'll be much more likely to make the drive to VT, particularly in less than ideal weather! Now all that's needed is a name for him or her.

brunch

One of my longest friends, Jen, has been staying with me for two weeks while she's been in town for her sister's wedding. It's been great spending time with her, as well as being able to catch up with other friends who actually live in the area (but whom I don't often see for some reason or another (none of which are good reasons)). Today we drove out and had brunch with a good friend and her family. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere very laid back and relaxed, and the drinks...super fun. They'd made horseradish infused vodka and tomato juice (strained to a clearish color), picked home-grown celery and tomatoes, and served us their own version of slightly spicy bloody marys- in an "acton" glass to boot. Mmm mm. Now that I've gotten used to having people around the house, it will feel quite empty when everyone leaves!

comment away!

After a few mentions, i changed the authorization to comment on my blog. Now you all can (even without an id), but you'll still have to do the word verification. Otherwise i'll get a bunch of spam posts.