Hodgepodge

Hey everyone! I keep thinking things will settle down and I'll just have all this time on my hands, but it never seems to happen. Fall has been super busy for me, but on the upside we've had an amazingly gorgeous season here in Boulder. Up until this week it's been in the 70s or 80s so the leaves have been slowly turning, giving us weekend after weekend to enjoy them. I think this week has been the peak, but the aspens are just now turning gold, so maybe we still have several days left. I spend a lot of time making fun of the never-ending landscaping that goes on everywhere around me, particularly at work. However, these past couple of weeks I've been thankful for it all. I'm surrounded by reds and greens and oranges and golds - it's almost overwhelming how beautiful it is. My favorite thing they plant at work is wheat. There are 2 kinds: one kind of wheat - the tan and green - is everywhere, but the second kind - kind of a cream and red wheat - is much rarer and it's my favorite. They plant it a couple of places at work and it's so pretty and soft (yes, I touched it). But it doesn't last long and today's rain could spell doom for my wheat. It's rained twice this week throwing the general populace out of sorts. We've had so much sunshine and so many beautiful days in a row, that this sudden onset of clouds and drizzle messes with everyone. People are drinking lots more coffee - always a good thing - but still looking blurry-eyed and confused, exclaiming over the fact that it's rained for four straight hours. What next, we think. Luckily the sunshine is supposed to return in time for the weekend. I need at least one more weekend in my hammock so I've my fingers crossed.

Last weekend we had Joe and Kim over, along with their children Zack (3) and Alena (18 months or so). Thomas and I still haven't gotten around to really having people over much and there's absolutely no excuse for this, except for above busy one. I think we just need practice. We decided to do things the easy way this time and ordered pizza and salad from our favorite pizza place, Boulder Pizza Exchange (weird name, I agree) that's half a block down the road. In addition I made spinach and artichoke dip with carrots and chips as an appetizer, some of Larissa's Famous Sangria (last batch of the year) and 4-H brownies. Kim brought a really yummy dessert that I want to try making myself - peaches in rum sauce with angelfood cake. It was delicous! After dinner, Zack wanted to show us Samarai Jack - a favorite cartoon of his. Thomas is really into animation, so I sense a netflix in our future. We then played my favorite new game - The Settlers of Catan. Joe and Kim have been raving over this game for awhile and they brought it over. It is the best! It's all about strategy and bartering and of course, luck. The actual board is made up of cards that change every game, so the game feels new every time you play it. Beware any friends and family, should you ever come to our house now, you'll be forced to play Settlers - but you'll love it! It takes about one hour to play a game and I was very confused for the first 20 minutes. For awhile there I thought I was going to win, but I ended up coming in last. Joe won and Kim and Thomas tied for second. Vengance will be mine! Anyway, after that we just talked for awhile as the kids slept in the guestroom. They are amazingly good and soooooooo cute! We had a wonderful time and it's definitely given us the push we needed to have people over more.

In other news, I made the mistake yesterday of going to Whole Foods in Boulder after work. Thomas and I are very particular about when we actually go to Whole Foods because it's always crammed full of people and you can barely find a parking space. Saturday or Sunday nights at 9 pm are the best. But the trip could not be postponed, so there I was. I should have known I was in for trouble when I had to wait for a parking place, but I thought it just must be all the after-work-pre-weekend shoppers. Once I was finally parked I made my way inside only to be confronted by hordes of people - the usual amount of shoppers (honestly twice as many as there should be to be able to comfortably push your cart around) and an additional 100-200 people standing in winding lines everywhere. I found out from the seafood guy that they were having a massive tasting event. Hence the lines. He also told me that he tasted the best thing in the world in one of those lines. What could that be, I asked. Goat cheese dipped in chocolate. I'm a huge fan of both items, but the combination sounds iffy to me. He said to trust him. One day, maybe I'll get the chance. But you would have had to pay me $200 to even consider standing in that line. There were 50 people in that line all giving me the evil eye as I tried to fight my way to snatch a carton of milk. And it just went on and on - every aisle I went down. I ran into so many people and was hit by just as many. I'm black and blue from it all. Why would they schedule a tasting at Thursday at 6 pm??? And who are all these people that have the time to stand in these lines??? Are CU classes really that easy or are there tons of well dressed homeless people looking for a free snack? I'm perplexed. By the time I finally made it out of there, I was traumatized for the rest of the night. I got dinner from the deli there because the thought of cooking was just too much. Luckily the pumpkin risotto cakes were so good that one day soon, I will be returning to Whole Foods.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Attack Syria? NO!
-sunday