We're not going to the party. I'm totally sick again with a head cold. I think it's the same one I had last week. I never did get back to 100% after that and I'm thinking that being really cold in the cemetary the other day is what has done it. At least it's just in my head / sinuses and not in my chest. I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning because I couldn't breathe from being stuffed up. I remember that I was having a dream about not being able to feel any liquid in my throat when I swallowed water and when I woke up, I was really really thirsty.

I haven't got much appetite today. I had some coffee and leftover pizza first thing this morning but nothing since then. I couldn't really taste it anyway. I think I'm going to make some tea, that may help. I also have a few over-ripe bananas which I may make into banana bread. I also have laundry piled up like crazy but that may have to wait until tomorrow.

Who has more fun than me on a Saturday I ask you?

The weather is incredibly depressing today. I wish that I had my camera with me right now so I could take a picture through the window. There is water slowly dripping down the glass and clinging to the screen...the trees are barren, the sky is dark grey, the slush and snow from this morning has turned into big slippery puddles of water. Leaves have mixed with the water to create a slick, gooey mess everywhere.

On the upside, at least the visibility has improved. Hopefully this storm will pass. We're supposed to go out of town to a family party tomorrow evening. It's about an hour north of here and we have to take a secondary highway to get there. It's a windy old highway that is full of maniacal transport drivers and crazy farm boys who play chicken and pass on double solid lines on sharp bends. I don't really like being on it in the summer, in the sunlight, much less at night, when the weather is rotten.

We'll see what happens. If I don't feel any better tomorrow than I do right now, we won't be going. My cold seems to be creeping back. I was up coughing in the night last night and my hands have been frozen all day today. I'm not usually bothered by the cold but this week, I can't keep my hands warm. I think it is the dampness, I'm not sure.

Right now, all I can do is focus on getting through this afternoon. I can't wait to be home where it's warm and cozy and bright. We were going to have Mark's dad over for dinner tonight to celebrate the beginning of Hannukah. We've postponed it until Sunday or Monday night beause I don't want him out in this weather. Truth be told, I don't want us out in this weather but we do have jobs to go to.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend, and some rest. It's been a long week.

I just got home from Ryan's funeral. It was sad and funny and beautiful. He had so many friends, such a big family, so many people who loved him. It was an incredible celebration of his life. We cried a lot, and laughed a lot. His folks seem to be doing okay, as well as can be expected. They are exceptionally strong people who have been through a lot on this journey with their son. They have to heal now and fortunately, they have a large network of friends and family to help them.

One particular note about the funeral, on the way from the church to the cemetary, we passed a large group of kids from his elementary school who were standing by the side of the road (wearing their Leafs sweaters and waiting "go leafs go" flags). Waving good-bye to Ryan one last time. It was so touching and sweet, the kind of thing that you can only find in a close-knit, small community like Gananoque.

Of course, events like this are draining. I've been yawning almost constantly since I got home. I find that I start thinking about things that ordinarily, I don't...like, if I died tomorrow, who'd come to my funeral? What kind of a service would I want? I know that I don't want to be embalmed and buried, I plan to be cremated (it's less expensive and more practical I think). I also know that I don't want anything remotely religious. The funeral this morning was a Catholic one. I grew up in the Catholic church but don't support or practice it anymore.

I do know that one of things I have to add to my "to do" list for the new year is to get our wills sorted out. We don't have them done up but we should. Also, I want to make a living will for myself. Neither is as fun as the other things on my list but they're probably the most important items that I'll have to sort out in January.

Well I have begun to notice some results from the change in our eating habits. I know that my face looks a little bit thinner than it has in a while and I have begun to feel a change in the way some of my clothes are fitting. Mark's noticed a difference in his clothes too.

A number of years ago, I stopped "dieting" and just started eating right. At that time, I dropped about 10 pounds and didn't gain any weight at all for about five years. For the first time for as long as I could remember, I was wearing my clothes out instead of growing out them. Over the past couple of years though, we have both gained weight. Due mostly I think to our domestic bliss and some occasional boughts of family-related stress (you know, the whole self-medicating through bad food choices thing). Also, we just plain old like to eat, good food, not junk, and my honey is a chef (an amazingly talented one too). We eat a lot of good food in our house but we fell into a bad habit of eating portions that were too big, too late at night.

For last few weeks we've been trying to eat before 6 p.m., and not eat anything at all after that. When we do snack during the day, it's on fruit. I also have been eating a lot less during the daytime then I was before. I find that if I have a much smaller lunch (like, a piece of fruit, bowl of soup and a yogurt), that will get me through the afternoon and then we have a nice dinner.

I've been reading a lot of other blogs about fitness and weight loss and it shocks me to see what some of these women are doing to themselves, the calorie counting and the beating themselves up if they deviate from their regime at all. My primary reason for us eating better and becoming more active it be more healthy. Of course, the end result of that is going to be some weight loss and better overall fitness. I don't want to create a "diet" for us that is impossible to follow or that makes me feel bad if I stray away from a some "program." The changes we have made to our lifestyle seem to be working for us, for now. Also, doing things in small steps and not all at once, it hasn't seemed like a hardship. I can honestly say that I haven't missed the cheese that I've stopped eating in the day, and when I do sit down to dinner at night, I fill up a lot faster (and I enjoy my meals more).

Unlike most fat girls though, I think that I have a healthy level of self-esteem and self-confidence. I have never felt that my fat held me back and, quite honestly, I never think about what other folks may say when they see me out on the street (as in, "oh my look at the fat woman"). I know that some people, who aren't as big as I am, are terrified to go out in public in a swim suit, I'm not. I got over that one a long time ago.

Now, I think that I want to purchase a scale. I had one, years ago, and threw it out. The numbers just weren't important to me for a long time. I can honestly say that I don't know how much I weigh at the moment. I think that is why I now want a scale. I don't have a set number in mind that I'd like to reach (although that may change when I get a scale and have an actual measurement of what I weigh and what my BMI is). I just feel like I would like to have some kind of goal and I'd like to be able to chart my progress as we get healthier in a "tangible" way.

I'll keep you all posted as I go along with this journey to wellness. So far, I am really getting into this and I'm getting a lot of inspiration from some of the people who's blogs I read every day as they go along on their journey's too. My only regret in any of this is that we didn't get started on it sooner.

I'm back at work today and physically, feeling much better than I had been. My throat is still a little sore and every once in a while I get into a coughing jag but other than that, I'm a lot better.

We had some sad news this morning about a friend's son. His name is Ryan and he passed away early this morning. Ryan had a very rare Leukodystrophy disease called Pelizaeus Merzbacher's Disease. He was a really brave and cool guy and many many people are going to miss him.

We have digital cable here in my house. Our schedule doesn't permit us to get out to movies very often so we bought 2 digital cable boxes a couple of years ago and pay the extra for the full compliment of channels available to us (not including the NFL/NHL Stuff). Recently, the movie selection has been kinda crummy but I stumbled across an absolute gem yesterday afternoon. I watched My First Mister, a 2001 release which stars Albert Brooks and Leelee Sobieski. I wasn't really expecting anything from it all. It just happened to be starting while I was flicking channels. It was a lovely movie, about friendship and understanding and tolerance and personal growth. I very much enjoyed it and would highly reccommend it to anyone who likes thoughtful, well-written, well-acted films.

It snowed a little bit last night so I'm going to try to get some photos when the sun comes up. I'm feeling a lot better today than I did yesterday. Whatever I had seems to be going away, which I appreciate. I found yet another quiz (are there more of them now or am I just stumbling across them more because I've been home sick?). Anyway, this is a "how indie are you" quiz, and it's a lot of fun!!

i am an indie snob!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

You're just too cool for school, aren't you? You're pretty narrow minded
and opinionated with regards to music (and probably most other things
as well). But you're allowed to be, because you really are better
than everyone else. You take pride in obscurity.
You probably prefer vinyl too, you elitist bitch.


btw, I did actually bake something yesterday. Butterscotch Chip cookies. They didn't last too long (I think that there are like 4 left). I made them while I watched "Kurt and Courtney" in the documentary film channel yesterday afternoon. If you're into conspiracy theories and/or hate Courtney Love, it's an interesting little film. One thing that struck me as odd was that the film was basically about how they couldn't get access to Courtney and how they were going about tracking down people who could tell them "what was really going on" before Kurt died. Personally, I always thought that the circumstances surrounding his death were a little suspicious. I mean, I could have seen him killing himself with herione but the idea that he could turn a gun on himself was a little tough to swallow.

Today is my vacation day and I'm still feeling yucky. My head is all plugged up. I felt pretty good last night. We just stayed in and ordered a pizza and watched the Will & Grace wedding episode. It was cute albeit predictable. I was going to drive Mark to work this morning so I'd have the car but there's no where I really need to go today so I'll just stay put. I may do some baking and I definitely need to do laundry. It's a putter day for me and that's alright. I've not had one in a long time so it'll be okay.

I never did get out in the snow the other day and get some photos. The snow is all gone now and everything is wet from the rain. The ground is brown and the sky is grey, it's not pleasant but it could be worse. It's a good day to stay inside and keep toasty warm...oh yeah, and to do quizzes, here's another one:

I'm sick. I came home from work early yesterday and slept most of the day away. I'm not sure what's up, I think I have a dose of the flu or something. I fluctuate between freezing cold and boiling hot and I'm achey and have a sore throat. Not fun. I have tomorrow booked off for as a vacation day so I'm going to use this extra long weekend to take it easy and feel better. I think that I've been fighting this bug for a while and the lack of sleep and cold temperatures on the weekend just got the best of me. yuck!

Oh, btw, you know I'm a sucker for quizzes, here's another:

I absolutely know that I don't want to have any children. Mark knows this and feels the same way I do. I'm not sure when I changed my mind. When I was a young girl, I always thought that I'd have a child at some point. Around my mid-20's, my mind started to change and I've felt that way ever since. It's not that I hate kids. I like kids that I know. I don't like kids I don't know. I find them to be bold, and noisey, and messy and basically ill-mannered. I usually ask to be seated as far away from kids as I can when I'm in a restaurant because I hate watching little kids eat. Last night we were out for dinner and a young man and his son sat next to us. Now, I don't want you think that I'm humourless or mean, I just don't like little kids. The little boy was trying to convince his dad that he should get to have some dessert. His father informed him that he'd have to eat up the baby carrots on his plate before he could have any. The kid proceeded to shove all of the carrots (about 6) into his mouth (with his fingers) and then chew them up, with his mouth wide open, so his dad could witness his disappearing vegetables trick. It was lovely.

I find that some women look down their noses at me for saying that I don't like children. Of course, these are usually women who have "beautiful" and/or "gifted children." You know the type, their children are so cute/adorable/smart that they just would never annoy anyone. How could they?

I do like older kids, kids who you can talk to. And I enjoy children's television programs (Spongebob Squarepants is a favourite of mine). I also believe strongly that children should be seen and not heard.

We had an early start to winter this weekend and it created some interesting twists for us over the past 48 hours.

Friday night, we actually left the office before 5 p.m. and were on the highway before 6 p.m. Although we were travelling in the dark (something I wasn't particularly looking forward to), the weather was great and the roads were clear. We tried to stop in Belleville for dinner but the restaurants near the 401 which we tried were all really busy. Eventually, we ended up in a Swiss Chalet (near Port Hope) and had a really nice meal. We sat in a section where a couple of families with little kids were seated. Ordinarily, I hate sitting near children in restaurants but the little girls who were at the table beside us were very sweet and quiet. Our waitress was also very nice and she gave us these little Casper the Friendly Ghost toys after our meal. Free! I thought that was very nice of her.

By the time we got to the hotel, it was after 9 p.m. and we still had to completely unload the van. The parking lot at the hotel was not secure and we couldn't take a chance on having the van broken into over night, and losing anything we needed for our event. Luckily, the luggage carts weren't in use and the storage room we were using was very close to the lobby. By the time we got checked in and unloaded and parked, it was after 10 p.m. and was pooped. Ordinarily, by 10 p.m., I've been in bed for over an hour.

The next morning, I woke up at the normal time and called Mark to make sure that he was up for work. It was very very cold and windy and the weather report called for snow. We headed over to our venue to start our setup and nearly froze our collective buns off while we loaded the van. I guess our close proximity to the lake was the reason for the super frigid winds. Fortunately, the staff at the venue were totally terrific and helpful. Set up went very smoothly, actually the whole day did. We had time to run back to the hotel, get changed and have a drink before the event started.

The actual night was a lot o fun. Even though I was working, I had a chance to visit with some folks who I hadn't seen in a long time. By the time we left the venue to head back to the hotel (around 2:15 a.m.), the snow was flying and the roads were terrible. The visibility was nill and you couldn't see the lines on the highway. Fortunately, our hotel was just 2 miles down the road from the venue so it didn't take us forever to get back. Mark was at the hotel when I got back. He had driven up after work to have dinner with some friends of ours.

What did take forever however, was our trip back to Kingston. My colleagues were travelling back in the van but I was driving back with Mark. We left the hotel early, intent on getting back shortly after noon. We took the 427 up to the 401 and found breakfast in North York. Our car was running fine, started right away, no problems. We hit the highway after breakfast and a stop for gas and were heading eastbound on the 401, making good time despite the snow and poor-ish road conditions. We were almost to the DVP when our car just died, in the middle of the road. Mark was able to steer us off to the side, under an overpass (the DVP). After an hour on hold, I was able to read CAA and order a tow-truck (we weren't 100% sure but it seemed that our battery was pooched). While on hold with CAA, a nice OPP officer stopped by and told us how to get a tow truck dispatched via the OPP.

So now, we had an OPP and a CAA tow truck coming to rescue us (hopefully). With the storm, there were a large number of accidents, all over the place and we were considered a low priority. We'd been stranded in the car for about 90 minutes a tow truck arrived. yay!!! It hadn't been dispatched by either CAA or OPP, they just happened to be in the lane and stopped. Apparently, they ordinarily travel the collector lanes. Snow plows were in the collectors though so they just happened to be in the express. The spot we stopped at was directly between two Canadian Tire stores so our tow-charge wouldn't be too bad. It turned out that our battery was, indeed pooched, and so was our alternator. By 3:30 p.m., we were back on the road, new battery, new alternator and a little more than an hour of daylight. It was snowing quite heavily in Toronto but by the time we got to Oshawa, it had let up. Eventually, the road dried up and were travelling on dry pavement, making good time.

I was completely pooped by this time. I slept like the dead last night and am still feeling the effects of the weekend. The whole thing went really well I think. The person who was in charge did an excellent job of organizing everything and all the people I spoke with said that they really enjoyed themselves (which is the most important thing!).

Today, I'm back at work, plodding through a backlog of work and watching the snow outside slowly melt. The sun keeps popping out so hopefully it'll be gone before long. We didn't get enough to shovel which is nice. I'm going to try to get some photos of the "winter wonderland" outside. If I get some good ones, I'll post them here later.

Of course, over the weekend, because we were so busy and working so hard, a lot of pizza and fast food was consumed so the "eating better" thing kind of got tossed out the window. I didn't drink much pop though, I stuck mostly to water. My skin is definitely looking better and I'm feeling not too bad despite the pace of the past few days. I think our new "regime" is having positive results so far.

I didn't think that I'd have a chance to update this before we hit the road but, apparently, there is a lot of time before we hit the road. Everything is done on our end, the van is here, it's not loaded though. We had hoped that everything would be ready earlier and that we'd be travelling in the day light. Given that it's been snowing all morning and we've heard reports about freezing rain in Toronto, that would have been nice. Less of a worry, for sure. We've been told that we're not leaving until five now. That gets us into Toronto around 8. I'm usually in bed by 8:30 so I'll probably be toast by then. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

Last night we finally watched this week's Sopranos. We had taped it earlier in the week but what with running around and stuff, we didn't get a chance to sit down with it until last night. I thought it was brilliant. The season has seemed to be slowly building up to something so far. The episodes are well constructed but less intense than previous season's. To see Ralphie's bald head in a bowling ball bag just made me smile (I know, I'm a bit of a sick puppy!).

I'm heading in to work a little later than normal this morning to allow for some extra time to get my stuff together to take away with me. I'm not sure what time we're heading out today, hopefully we'll be travelling in the daylight because I hear that there is a possibility of nasty weather today (either rain or wet snow). Hopefully not though, I hate being on the highway when the weather is yucky. At any rate, I think that things are pretty much together. I know that our end of stuff is ready. It'll be very busy but I think it'll be a success. The woman is in charge of everything has done an amazing job getting all of us organized.

I hope that everyone has a lovely weekend!!

I've actually had a chance to stop for lunch today. I had some fruit and some left-over veggie pizza (cold, of course!). I've noticed that the blogs I really enjoy reading lately, are written by mostly unhappy folks. Not suicidal or anything, angst-y I guess is a good way to describe it.

I know that for me, many things irritate me on a daily basis but, by the time I get around to writing something here, I've lost my steam, forgotten about whatever it was that irked me and instead have something sort of boring to write, like what I had for lunch or what the weather is doing. Basically though, I'm a happy person. My house is unorganized but I'm tidying it up. My personal physical fitness isn't what it should be exactly but I'm working on that too. I'm very lucky because I have a job that I love and work with terrific people so I have a lot of fun in the office. I'm in a terrific relationship with a wonderful man and we have a cool (albeit messy) little house in a neighbourhood we love. Lucky for me, the good stuff far outnumbers the bad stuff on any given day.

On the work front, we've been laughing a lot today. Last minute reservations are coming in for our event and we're all a little giddy from the pace. Good giddy though, it's productive. I find I get more done when I can laugh. It's a great stress reliever too.

On that note, here is something that will either make you laugh or throw up.

I haven't had a lot of time to write this week. It's pretty busy at work right now and, what with errands and stuff in the evening (preparing to be away all weekend), I've barely had time to keep up on my eBay auctions stuff. I've been doing okay with that recently. I've been selling off most of my video collection. I guess a lot of folks are doing early holiday shopping this way. It's not too early though, when I think about it. It's almost mid-November already so I guess, when you figure in shipping time and whatnot, it's actually holiday shopping time. Yikes. I've not even really thought much about it. Not that we get too caught up in it in our house, or try not too anyway. I'm looking forward to the holidays this year though. I don't say that every year but this year it should be fun. We're having dinner at our house for a change of pace (we usually go to my folks' on the day). It'll be a tight squeeze in our little house but we'll all fit in I'm sure. Also, I have over 2 weeks booked off from work during that time and I don't have a lot of stuff planned so it'll be a good time for me to get some things sorted out around here. I'm still working on the clutter, little bits at a time. So far, so good. I'm clearing out a little more every week and eventually, we'll reclaim a lot of the space in our office. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm sure that when I have more room in here, my thoughts will flow more freely and the result will be a better blog!!

I was up through the night coughing again last night. The terrible cold bug that everyone in our office has been fighting since the end of the September seems to be rearing it's ugly head, again, just in time for the weekend. I shall not give into it however. It's echinacea and oranges for me today.

On a differnt note, I came across something the other day which may make you chuckle. I certainly had a good old laugh about it. Click here, it'll make you smile (if you, like me, have the sense of humour of an 8 year old on some days).

Oh, yeah....I found this quiz to take, it's kind of fun, you may want to try it. This is what my "result" was:


Which Personality Disorder Do You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Tuesday...well, over half-way through Tuesday, already. Yikes!

The weekend was very busy. Saturday was spent doing errands all morning and then working around the house all afternoon. I got a lot done but the day was a bit of a blur. We slept in very very late (for us) on Sunday. Didn't get up until 8:30 a.m. or so. I woke up craving a twister with cream cheese and sliced tomato but I didn't want to have to drive to North York to get it. We discussed our breakfast options and decided to go out to eat.

We headed north on Highway 38, hoping to find some cool little mom and pop place between Kingston and Sharbot Lake. The first semi-interesting place we found (the Bravo Restaurant) was completely smoke filled. The food looked good but I hate it when you can't smell the food over the cigarette smoke in a restaurant. We left with our noses and mouth full of smoke and our stomachs still empty.

Rather than carry on further up north, we headed back for town. A new place in Bayridge called Cora's had just opened and we decided to try it. Apparently, it had only been open since Friday. It was nice and bright and homey inside, and it smelled like food. It didn't have a smoking section but it had a cool looking fruit bar section and it seemed promising. Unfortunately, our experience was not great. The service was pretty bad and we had to send out meals back twice (they came out cold, and then came back, seconds later, seemingly microwaved). I think if you were having the fruit plates or a sandwich, it might be okay but their hot food leaves a lot to be desired. Also, as I mentioned, the service was less than I would have expected for the prices they charge.

Work's been very busy this week. The big dinner that we're helping out with is this weekend and things are picking up. It's very well organized and everything seems to be coming together nicely.

We're still working on the eating better thing. I think that we're both getting used to it and it feels good. I'm sleeping a lot better, or did last night anyway. We're still eating out as often as we were before but we're making better choices when we do. I'm not as concerned about weight loss as I am about generally improved health and generally, I think that we are improving our health so that's very cool.

I was up pretty early this morning. I actually jumped right out of bed rather than crawled out (which is what I often do these dark early mornings). I forgot to open the bedroom window last night. Ordinarily, we keep one window open while we sleep but I didn't do that last night. I'm kind of glad I didn't. It got very chilly over night (although the temperature is actually higher right now than it was yesterday) and I can't imagine how damp it would have been if I'd actually had the window open last night.

Today should be another busy day but I'm just taking it as it comes. I'm looking forward to the weekend...not in a "wishing the week away" way, just in general. I realized last night that it was Thursday. I know that may sound kind of dumb but sometimes I forget what day it is and I get all turned around. It hit me that the working week was almost behind me when we drove up our street last night and I saw all the blue boxes at the curbs (our garbage and recycling are collected early on Friday mornings).

The sun's supposed to shine on us today! I hope that everyone has a very happy Friday!

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately. Some blogs are very personal and some have a political slant. Some are very well written and insightful. Some are honest and full of typos. I think I like the honest ones better than the smart ones. I don't mean that you can't be both honest and smart. I find that lately, I'm really enjoying reading about ordinary people. Who they are and what they do. I think that individuals are infinitely more interesting than talking heads and government officials.

I'm having a good day so far, it's been a not bad week actually.

Of course, it's been a short week for me since I took Monday off. It's been extremely busy though. I'm helping out with an event which is taking place in Toronto next weekend (on the 16th) and most folks are leaving their registration stuff until the last minute. This is generally par for the course so I'm not too surprised. What surprises me mostly is how quickly the days fly by. It feels like one moment, it's 8 a.m. and I'm sitting at my desk, checking my email and drinking my coffee, and the next moment, it's 4:10 p.m. and I'm starting to pack up. It's good busy though, not crazy-frustrating-pull-your-hair-out busy.

Today is very very sunny but very very cold. The weather has been uncharacteristically cold this month so far. I'm enjoying it though. It feels much better than all that hot sticky stuff we put up with this summer. It makes me feel healthier when the air is so crisp. We've been making a concentrated effort to eat better lately too. Not dieting necessarily (although some weight loss would be nice), just eating more healthy stuff. It's been a couple of weeks now and it's going okay. The main thing, I think, is to cut down on the number of times we eat out. Meals at home are just so much better, in terms of fresher ingredients, less salt, less fat (or at least more good fats and less of the bad stuff). Now that we have our bike back and can get into a regular exercise regime again, that will help too. I like how much better I feel when we're eating better food and being more active. I don't want to spend this winter on the sofa. I want to spend it getting the house sorted out and this new, healthier thing that we're doing will help with that. It all goes together. If I have more energy and feel better, I'll be better able to get the house organized and if I get things better organized, I'll feel better about the house. So basically, it's all good, so far.

The goodwill stuff is now at goodwill and the front entranceway of our house seems huge. It's quite nice actually. Mark doesn't mind the clutter but it does get me down sometimes and I'm trying to create a more calm, organized environment in our home. It's not that I'm a total clean freak or anything. I'm just really getting into simplifying our lives right now. Mark's being a very good sport about it, when we talked about it last night, he asked, in his best Homer voice "Do I have to do anything?" I'm being particularly brutal with my own stuff but I am sifting through his things as well. I always ask him if it's okay before I throw something out that belongs to him. I mean, I could throw whatever it is out and he'd probably never notice, but I couldn't do that sort of thing. I'm sure he thinks that it's kind of silly but I also think he knows that it's making me happy (and he is usually happy to see me happy).

I was thinking about my blog a little bit over the weekend. I was musing how neat it would be to actually have something "important" to say in this forum. I realized though that whatever anyone writes in a blog is important and relevant, to themselves at least. If it's in your head and you take the time to put it down here, it must have some significance for you.

My weekend was okay. I ended up taking yesterday off as a last minute vacation day to sort out our kitchen. Last weekend, we purchased some new cabinets so our kitchen needed to be totally cleaned and re-organized before we could finish installing them. It looks pretty good I think and I have two large boxes of stuff for Goodwill. Have you ever noticed that it seems like everyone has at least one hot-air popcorn popper but no one uses them anymore? I know that I took one to Goodwill when we moved into the house and now I'm taking the other one. I'm not sure why I hung onto it as long as I did. I'm sure someone will find a use for it. I also seem to have collected a rather large number of mixing bowls, vases and various tupperware items over the years which I no longer use. I'm also getting rid of a big, faux wooden, brown microwave / television cart. There's nothing wrong with it, we just don't have the room for it anymore. I'm getting into minimalism for our house. It's not a huge house, and we have a lot of stuff so between eBay and Goodwill, I'm paring things down. So far, so good.

I love the way the sunlight filters through the leaves on the trees right now. This morning, there was a little bit of haze and the sun was pouring through the clouds. Because some of the leaves have already fallen, and others are brightly coloured, the effect was stunning. The wind has picked up since then so the leaves are swirling and flying around everywhere.

Autumn has always been my favourite time of the year. I do get excited in the spring when the grass gets green again and the trees start to bud, but I find that the beauty of the fall colours never ceases to make me pause and drink it all in. It always takes my breath away. Fall rocks!

Hallowe'en was lots of fun. We didn't get as many kids at our door last night as we had last year. Just over 100 I thing. I was surprised too because it rained last year and last night it was actually quite nice out. The best costume of the night (or costumes as it happened) were the four "Stuarts" who arrived en masse and, when I asked if they'd do a trick, laughed with glee and proceeded to each do a "look what I can do" in my driveway. Very cool.