Isn't it lovely

It's a beautiful day! I love this weather. It's cool but not cold. We slept with the windows open last night as we have done most of this month, but last night is the first time I've felt like I needed a cover. The sheets were balled up at the foot of the bed and I was too asleep to get them, so I just snuggle with Superman and that worked well.

This morning we woke up gradually. I love doing that. It wasn't late, though we went to bed pretty late last night. I painted the shelf (I am painting a shelf that goes in the kitchen) for a bit, then showered. Once I was clean, dressed, and in my right mind, Superman and I went to our favorite pizza and beer restaurant. They serve brunch on Sundays. I had the Milk Stout curry chicken crepes. Oh, my, they were good! Last week we were there and discovered a new beer they have on tap, Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout. As long as they have that on tap I doubt I'll drink anything else. So good!

I am trying to make my kitchen look better. Though the kitchen has a few good characteristics, it is overall a pain in my arse. There is lots of counter space but it's in one long row. It's a long walk from where I do most of my food preparation to the refrigerator. And the walls have been ugly for a long time. Finally we are fixing that. Superman got the old wallpaper off the walls and I have painted them a cheerful yellow. Did I tell you about that? Don't remember if I've mentioned it. There's a narrow shelf along the wall in the narrow part of the kitchen. Superman built it as a pantry shelf, and it's wide enough to hold cans and small boxes. We hadn't finished the wood so it was bare, natural shelving boards. Superman had to take the shelf off the wall to remove the wallpaper, of course, and I painted the wall yellow-ish. But that narrow part of the kitchen doesn't get good light, and the yellow actually made the space seem darker for some reason. I don't know. Anyway, I decided to paint the shelves bright white before hanging them on the wall again. They are in the process of turning white. Right now the paint has to dry thoroughly before I can add the last coat. I hope it's the last coat.

Diva turns 16 the first week of December. Since December weather doesn't make for a very good outside party, she has decided to have a combination early birthday/Halloween party. That happens this Friday. She has done a lot for it already. There's still some cooking to do, as I told her that baking cookies three weeks in advance was not a good idea. The end of the school grading period is this week, and the kids get a day off school on Friday, so Diva has this party planned to take place this coming Friday in the Civic Center park. There is a fairly nice gazebo/pavilion thing there, and a couple of smaller picnic shelters in the park. We could reserve the large pavilion, which is way bigger than we need, for $100. Or we could show up and claim any of the shelters, even the pavilion, for free and for nothing on a first-come basis. Unless of course the large pavilion is already reserved, which I doubt it will be in the middle of Friday afternoon. The party is scheduled for 3:00, but of course we will need to get there early to set up. Diva has decorations she wants to put up; streamers, a banner, etc. No balloons as far as I know, but they might also make an appearance. Who knows what terrors lurk in the mind of that girl. So we'll do the birthday thing this Friday, and be off the hook for a big to-do in December. That suits me fine.

I don't really have anything to say. I've spent all this space, all these words, saying much nothing. Let's see if I can jot down a few other random thoughts.

• Oreo (the dog) has some powerfully smelly farts. 
• The water now runs cold from the cold water faucet. Our cold water has been warm for months now. 
• Autumn seasonal beers are my favorite of the seasonal stuff. 
• I've been drinking too much beer and eating too much not-good-for-me stuff that I've gained five pounds. Oops. Time to cut back.

Let's talk baseball for a few. Both of the league championship series are finished. We watched Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers last night to win the American League championship. It was an excellent game in which a grand slam home run featured prominently. I haven't seen a grand slam in a few years, and the Red Sox managed two of them in this championship series! I love watching good baseball. Late last week the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League series from the L.A. Dodgers. Since the Braves didn't make it far into the post season, and the Pittsburgh Pirates finked out early also, the Cardinals were my next choice for Nat'l League champs. So I'm happy. And I strongly preferred Boston over Detroit, so that's good. No baseball tonight, but the World Series starts Wednesday evening. I am excited about that. Perhaps I'll abstain from beer until then. My waistline would benefit. Beer and baseball go so well together, you see. 

And that's all the rambling I can think to ramble today. It feels a lot like naptime now, anyway, so there we go. 

Aubergine

I have recently learned a few things about aubergine. I've known for years that it is a color.
and a nice one, at that.

But a recent Google exploration reveals that aubergine is also one of the names of the plant I know as eggplant. Who knew? Wikipedia has lots of interesting information about this plant. In addition to eggplant and aubergine, it is known in various parts of the world as brinjal eggplant, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash. Solanum melongena  is the botanical name. This information fascinates me.

For quite a while now I've wanted to get a purple PT Cruiser in order to call it The Eggplant, because that's what a purple PT Cruiser looks like to me.

Now, however, I want a PT Cruiser of this color in order to name her "Aubergine." I like that better.

And now, a bit about Spontaneous Generation. Do you remember learning about this in school, probably science class? Seems none other than Aristotle held this theory that some living things can come from inanimate stuff. My personal favorite example is that old rags and corn kernels can create mice. For the morbid among us: dead flesh gives rise to maggots.

I bring this up because we have in our house an unexpected congregation of flies. Houseflies, specifically. They've been flying around the kitchen window and the window in my office. My office is in what would be the formal dining room if this house were used as intended by the mid-20th century architects, and is adjacent to the kitchen. My office is on the east side, the kitchen on the west side of the house. Both windows are unobstructed and I think the flies suppose they can escape by heading toward the light. If I were to construct a spider web in the doorway between the two rooms I could probably catch them all. We don't know where the flies are coming from, or how they are getting into the house. Hence spontaneous generation.

These are the thoughts in my head that I've been eager to share with you. There are other things I feel I need to report on, such as the situation with Diva (she's been calmer, less likely to need law enforcement intervention since school started three weeks ago), our vehicle situation since I wrecked the car (haven't gotten another one, we're having my old truck fixed so I can use that for now), and I'm not sure what else. I still haven't even downloaded the pictures from my camera, the ones I took when I was on my adventure that eventually lead to me wrecking the car. I have pictures of the wreck (it's badly crinkled on the front driver's side), and pictures from the state park where I stayed in West Virginia. I was there a couple of weeks after that strange extreme storm that raked through from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast back in late June. The tree damage was amazing. I took pictures. Got a couple of shots of Sproing on the back of his Uncle M's motorcycle while we were still in Florida. All of that is still on my phone. I keep meaning to write up some details on my summertime drama with pictures, but I get distracted. I blame FaceBork. And my ADD.

Interesting factoid about the wrecked Aveo. I broke the transmission. Wish I could have seen it. It was discovered when those-people-who-do-these-things got the car to the dealership and up on the rack. I think that was the clincher that totaled the car. With all the body damage, the fools were saying they may repair it. That was before they got a good look at the underside. Also, it had way more miles on the odometer than they expected. I like to drive. The car is five years old and had 119K miles on it. I've been from Florida to Vermont in that thing, and not all in one trip. Back and forth from South Carolina to western Pennsylvania a few times. Four, maybe six? Not five, because that would leave me in Pennsylvania when I am obviously (to me) in South Carolina. Trust me.

Speaking of South Carolina, our weather has thankfully moderated. It is no longer beastly hot. Highs this week have been in the mid 80s (high 20s for the rest of the world) and our humidity is reasonable. I HATE walking out the door and into a blast furnace/sauna combo. It's still too warm for me (for me, mind you) to turn off the air conditioner. Ten degrees cooler and I'll open the windows.

Autumnal beauty

The leaves are finally turning. We've had such unseasonably warm weather it has taken longer than usual for the colors to burst forth from the trees. They are bursting now. On my bus route out in the county this afternoon I saw some gorgeous trees in vivid red, some bright yellow, deep intense orange. This is one of the reasons I like my job.

My mind is having trouble with the timing, though. I hear Christmas music, see decorations on homes as well as in the stores. The "gift" type junk is on the shelves again. This triggers my mind into the Christmas holiday spirit, even though I know it is too early. I'm beginning to really want to watch my Christmas movies, and I NEVER watch them until after Thanksgiving (with a few exceptions, provisions, quid pro quo).

Autumn colors on the trees sets me in a different mood, though. It's a fall thing. Frost on the pumkins, harvest, scarecrows, roast turkey. With fall coming late and Christmas being forced on me early, I'm all confused.