Something is Eating My Pumpkins

My lovely front stoop decorations have gone from this:

to this:

G thinks it's the squirrels and he's probably right.  He hates squirrels and blames them for everything ("No, G, I really think the fridge just quit working on its own.  I don't think the squirrels in the neighbor's yard had anything to do with it.") and he uses some pretty profane (and yet creative) adjectives when he yells at them.  None of them are suitable for mention on the blog, but you can imagine…

Anyhoo, it doesn't bother me that they are attacking my pumpkins nightly, because, hey, at least they're getting a nice snack.  At least these pumpkins can serve as more than yard ornaments.  In the past, I've bought them, scooped them out and roasted the seeds, but this year I'm way too lazy for that.  I mainly got them as a distraction - so people would look at them instead of our crappy yard.  But now that we've (finally) cleaned up the yard, as far as I'm concerned, the squirrels can have at it.

Pumpkin buffet at dawrighthouse!

In other happenings, look at this:

Couldn't you just eat up those little feet?  This is as close as she will let us get to her, and even then, she looks like she could use a cigarette and perhaps a strong drink.

OK, time to struggle through the work day and then hand out candy to the little ghosts and goblins!  Send me pics of your kids (and you!) in costume.  Hope it's a fun night for you all.

Happy Halloween!

Toil and Trouble

Round About the Cauldron Go

The three witches, casting a spell

Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights hast thirty one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

{Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I, by William Shakespeare} 

{And also, a pumpkin carving contest I came across}                                                                  

Celebrating - or at least Noticing

So with all my goal talk of late, I thought I would mention that I'm striving to truly enjoy this fall.  That probably sounds like a joke, considering every other post over here is about how much I love this season and how I'm celebrating it, etc.

But!

Other than Christmas, this is my favorite time of the entire year, and so I'm trying not only to enjoy the flavors (pumpkin spice latte!) but also the sounds, the smells, and the way the sunlight plays on the leaves.

As a result of reading The Happiness Project, I have decided that one change I would like to make is to do what I can to make the house feel "homier." And so these days I am making an attempt to merge these two ideas.  In my little corner of the world, I am trying to reflect the colors and flavors of the season in my home.

This means that I have baked pumpkin bread and tried a new (magical!) candy corn bar recipe; I am making a concerted effort to have delicious - freshly baked - treats on our kitchen counter.  Every week.  This means baking.  And cleaning.  Effort, people.

I have bought a few more decorations and placed them liberally all over the house.  I keep a string of lights shining in our front window every night.  I bought bags and bags of candy to hand out on Thursday night, and I will make sure all the lights are on and the front door is open so the kids will come.  I will also try to give Lucy to a good home - or any home.

I kid.

I sit in the front room every day and listen to the squirrels run through the leaves.  I watch my neighbor's tree intently.  Any day now it's going to be bare.  I bought pumpkins for the front steps and special Halloween napkins.  I bought pumpkin beer for Supper Club tonight.  I painted my nails orange and gray.  Indeed, I am making an effort this season!  And you know what?  I really enjoy it.  This year I am partaking.

Here's a little glimpse.

Does Sonic Deliver?

Good Saturday morning, peeps.  {Is there any other kind?}

Today is an outsourced kind of day; people to fix our sprinklers, people to bring us a new fridge.  I wonder if I threw in an extra $10, they would wash the dishes for us and perhaps throw in a load or two of laundry?  If I were being completely honest with you, I'd tell you that most some of the dishes from last week's brunch are still dirty, but I'll just keep that little nugget to myself.

This little nugget is running around the living room.  Wonder why you never see pics of that?  Because she moves too quickly to get it on camera.  Today she climbed the stairs up to the kitchen and almost explored a whole new floor, but she chickened out.

Will Sonic please deliver a slew of breakfast burritos to the house? We have no food and no energy to go get any.  {firstworldproblems}

Bye Bye, Piece of Crap Fridge

It occurs to me that one day soon I will have a crap ton of homework to do on days like today, and something inside me dies a little.  I am exploring the notion of outsourcing my homework to G and Nat King Cole, and I would take on more of a supervisory role...

OK, time to sip coffee, read our Literary Society pic, and will those dishes to get done.

TGIF, people!

Change is Here

You know how even though life is always shifting and changing, sometimes you just feel it more acutely?  For me, that was today.

A few things that are changing in my life:

This one! 

Why won't this biped just leave me alone?

That is actual physical contact, folks!  Outside her cage!  I'm so glad we caught it on camera because it will most likely never happen again.  Notice that she doesn't look happy but I was over the moon.

These beauties.

Book lovers never go to bed alone

I have traded in several books lately and it was time to renew the queue.  The thought of all these lovelies waiting for me to dive in just warms my book nerd heart.

Juice.

Source

In what has turned out to be an unexpected balls-to-the-wall diet overhaul, I have started drinking 16 ounces of fresh juice every day.  Although I look sideways at the fruit smoothies (duh), I don't get them very often.  Instead, I go for 100% fresh-made veggie juice at a place near my office.  So far I've tried carrot juice (which tastes exactly like drinking a carrot), and a blend of carrots/beets/ginger/celery (which tastes like dirt).  However.  I am no longer having an afternoon coffee and while this juice is going to take some getting used to, it is definitely giving me an energy boost and a clear head.  Which equals job security and hopefully grad school success.  Forking over $3/day for that is a bargain, in my opinion.

Beer.

This week I tried a Raspberry Beer mixed with Bourbon and OMG HAPPY FALL.

OMG I know my class registration date.

 AND my first day of class in January. 

For some odd reason, my social calendar is totally filling up for the next few weeks.  The thought of having to squeeze in homework in just a matter of months is, like, severely cramping my style.  I think I'll outsource some of my work to Nat King Cole and G.

Tonight I'm trying a new sushi place with a new peep. 

Also?  She's Russian.  (Sushi with The Russkie!)  And we're drinking infused vodka.  G warned me not to challenge her to a drinking contest, because I would surely lose.  He's very wise, that one.  Because if left to my own devices I would soooo be trying to outdrink everyone in the house.

I have an app on my phone that I actually use.

(Other than Instagram which is the filter for like 99.9% of all pics I use on here).

Source

{My highest-scoring word so far?  Hyena.  49 points, baby.}

G and I continually challenge each other, playing a few words during the work day and then several as we chill at night.  It is so fun!  If you have this app, my user name is Miz Right.  I'd love to play!  (I wrote that I would love to play with you but that just sounds all kinds of wrong and creepy.)


And in other news, we are finally, finally getting a new fridge delivered this weekend.  And we're getting our sprinklers winterized. 

Because it's like a frat house up in here.  Non stop partying and fun.

Can Goals Make You Happy?

Can goals make you happy?

The Type A answer to that is: Duh, yes.  And also, that's a stupid question.

In fact, one reason this book has captured my attention so well, and that I have enjoyed it so much, is that I'm working on my 2014 Resolutions right now.  In addition to my current weekly and monthly goals, I'm already focusing quite a bit on next year, and this book has been timely in that process.

Making goals is so fun!  The hard work that goes into achieving them?  Not so much.

One of the themes of Rubin's book is that, as we are in the process of performing tasks (associated with goals) that are designed to make us happy, we may in fact not be very happy.  For example, a cupcake would make me super happy right now, for about the 3.5 seconds it would take me to scarf it down.  Afterwards, though, I would realize that it undermines my attempts to lose weight and does not contribute to my long(er)-term happiness.  On the other hand, perhaps I want said cupcake but I deny myself.  The denial does not even remotely make me happy or satisfied, but it will eventually lead me to a goal that helps achieve happiness.

This theme of delayed-gratification-sucks-but-will-eventually-help-me-be-happy resonated with me because I swear that's how I live my life.  Not that I'm unhappy, or that I'm solely waiting for eventual fulfillment, or that I'm denying myself any cupcakes (let's be honest), but I find myself doing a whole heck of a lot of things I don't want to in order to organize my life in a certain way.  Almost none of my short-term or long-term goals make me feel happy or fulfilled in the moment.  But as time passes and I knock them out, slowly, one by one, they start to add up.  And I find myself climbing the ladder to other echelons of goals.

This progression, in an of itself, makes me feel fulfilled/happy because I can see my success.  Even if this success has opened a chapter of entirely new problems.  For example, moving to Denver was undoubtedly one of the best things I've ever done.  However, I spent the first few months doing errands and chores that are my least favorite of all: moving, finding a new doctor, dentist, doing all kinds of networking (hello! introvert!) to get to know people, finding my way around, sorting out mail problems, DMV problems, rabbit problems, loneliness, and change.  Although I was over the moon to live in Denver, I was dealing with a slew of issues that made me unhappy, day after day, and it was exhausting.  But guess what!  I am in Denver and that's all that matters!

Best Halloween Picture EVER

Also, in making my 2014 Resolutions (many of which will eventually be broken down into those weekly and monthly goals), I am reviewing my 2013 Resolutions.  This is incredibly rewarding in that I can see how much progress I've made!  For example, arguably the biggest resolution for this year was to somehow focus on a future career possibility.  Not ideas, but a real path.  It took me almost the whole year, and frankly, I've been brainstorming this for about 5 years overall, but I did it!  I worked on several ideas which didn't pan out, but among them was the MA in English.  I jumped through all the hoops and got started down that path.  So guess what?  Many of next year's goals are now related to that:  Figure out a specific, aggressive course schedule; look for teaching opportunities; network in the grad school; look for volunteer opportunities.

Although a couple of my goals are huge, such as grad school and planning for the next vacation, the vast majority of them are pretty mundane.  I usually throw "LOSE WEIGHT!" in there for good measure, and oddly enough, it continues to make the list year after year.  But soooo many of my goals are small. 

For example, here's a sampling of my monthly goals for this November and December.  Of about 40 goals, these are a few...

Plan a Thanksgiving meal for me and G; remember to cook his this time
Monthly review of resume
Prepare for annual performance appraisal
Find allergist
Order Christmas cards
Enroll in Spring semester
Seal kitchen counters/tile backsplash
Figure out hot water heater humidifier
Tour Denver German Christmas markets w/G
Try to make gingerbread houses? (fyi - this would be my first)
Fix front light on side of house
Drive around w/G and look at Christmas lights
Start going on weekend hikes?

The day I got my first iPhone - keeper of The Lists.

In talking about the process of achieving goals, Rubin designates certain tasks as "boomerang" tasks and that description is spot on.  These are the types of things we set out to do and instead of getting resolved, they bounce right back to us, sometimes bigger than ever.  Unfortunately, this is the story of my life.  Ever since we moved into the new house, we have had problems with the refrigerator.  Long story short because it's totally boring, the freezer is like the arctic (even our ice has ice on it) and meanwhile the refrigerator barely stays cold.  We have had an appliance man to the house four times for this.  And it is still not fixed.

As fate would have it, the dang thing stopped working entirely on the morning of the fall brunch.  So last night we broke down and bought a whole new one.  The point being: some tasks that contribute to happiness (appliances are not even close to goals for my life, but having food in my house makes me pretty dang happy, so this example makes the list) are incredible pains in the you-know-what while they are being sorted out.

And lastly, I can see how some people would find this whole goal-setting thing truly suffocating.  There was a point in my life (about a year, actually) when I didn't set any goals at all for myself other than to get out of bed, go to work, and make it through the day.  When that time passed and I became my Type A self again, I made myself a deal: if these goals ever contribute to my anxiety instead of alleviating it, they go out the door immediately.  I will delete all goals from the record and won't plan on doing anything again until I feel like it.

Having goals allows me, personally, to contribute holistically to my own life and development.  The only specific lists I used to keep were for work, and then I realized if I kept that up, the days would pass, then the years would pass, and I would have been too consumed with getting to bed on time and getting up on time and spending all day at work that I would have missed out on my own life.  And I would have blamed work for it, instead of myself.

So I took control.  And these lists were my way of doing it.

What about you?  Thoughts?

In Defense of Happiness

I saw this book on the Bestseller List for eons, which is probably why I haven't read it until now.  Sometimes, the more popular a book is, the less I want to read it.  In my world, this makes perfect sense.  But then I do read it, and I love it as much as everyone else, and find myself raving about it after the party is over.  The wave has passed, with everyone surfing it to shore, and I'm listlessly bobbing out at sea.  That's me there - waving at you from the horizon - looking around for dorsal fins.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Reading is my main hobby - almost my only hobby - and therefore I tend to read selectively, only what I'm in the mood for at a certain time.  And I haven't been in the mood to read about happiness or projects like...ever.  Until now, and mostly because I still hear so much about this book.

Rubin spends one year researching happiness and incorporating various concepts and ideas about it into her life.  She tailors the happiness project to herself, obviously; meaning that she took into account her schedule, her job, her children, her spouse, her time, and her desires and ideas (based upon a lot of research and introspection) when considering what would make her happier and how she could achieve her goals.  She encourages her readers not to follow her exact steps, but rather to tailor the concepts to their lives in ways that would have the greatest impact upon them.  Each chapter of the book is a month of that year, and each month has a theme, such as "relationships," "money," and "eternity." 

I am currently about three chapters from the end of the book, and I find the idea of happiness so interesting that I thought I would break the topic & book review up into a couple of posts. 

First, a defense of happiness:

Bottom line: it's better to be happy than not happy.  I think (and this is my point, not the author's) that we were created for joy and therefore we will always seek it.  Since we live in a fallen world, this desire gets corrupted in all sorts of ways.  And for those of us who have Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs mostly taken care of - food, water, shelter, safety, security - that just leaves the self-actualization part.

Is it selfish to want to be happy?

Despite what I know is a bad habit of mine, I judged this book by the cover.  Actually, by the title.  Why in the world is a successful (former clerk for Sandra Day O'Conner), family-oriented (two daughters and a husband) writer (wonderful job! flexible schedule!) living in New York (prosperous!) searching for happiness?  To me, that was a sign that our country had finally plummeted into full-on hedonism.  If someone like that isn't happy, then who stands a chance?

But.

Rubin is careful to approach the project as her own, not as something to be imposed on anyone else.  Although the concepts and discoveries might (will!) be of interest to readers, it is clear that she is not trying to tell the reader what to do, only what she has learned through her own experiments with her time and money.  She is also up-front about her life; she is not desperately seeking happiness because she is unhappy.  She is simply trying to learn how to become a better version of herself, according to her standards and centuries of common wisdom.

Remember this little old lady?  This picture makes me so happy (and sad).

I think that "happiness," in and of itself is a great thing, but as a goal?  Then it takes on a connotation of superficiality, impermanence, tilting at windmills.  What I want is deep joy, a purpose, a sense of fulfillment.  And I think that is what the author actually means when she uses the word "happiness."  The new methods and ideas she applies to her life are not trite; their intention is to help her become the person she wants to be.  And that idea really resonates with me.

In other words, I don't want to be the kind of person who thinks up new ways to be happy.  I want to think up new ways to better myself.  Which - while I may not be jumping up and down - will make me happy.  This is actually what the book is about.

To better your life, you have to know yourself well enough to know what would make life better.  What makes you happy?  What choices feel good?  If your plane went down (I used to think about this one a lot!) what would be your regrets?  In knowing this information, are there changes you could make to minimize the bad and maximize the good?

If you like setting goals, or even just thinking about setting goals; if you like introspection; if you think your kids are growing up too fast and you're not as "in the moment" as you want to be; if you feel that some of your time is "wasted"; if you wonder whether more money would make you more happy...this is a worthwhile book to read.

More to come!  Although I haven't finished the book yet, I already know that when I do, it is going back on the shelf for more reads in the future.

Fall Brunch

As I type this, I'm laying on the couch, in my pj's, bundled up in a fleece blanket, with college football playing on TV.  Does it get better than this on a fall afternoon?  I think not.

One of my goals for October was to host a fall brunch.  When we lived in VA, this was our yearly tradition, but over the last couple of years it has fallen by the wayside.  In between crazy jobs and trips and the move, we haven't had the mental bandwidth for it, so I'm very happy we have room for it in our lives again.

The little LED candles eventually went into the pumpkins.  They flickered while we ate.

Menu

Mimosas & Beer

Vegetable Tray

Fruit Salad

Warm Crab Dip with Baguettes

Ham and Cheddar on Wheat (finger sandwiches)

Turkey and Provolone on White (finger sandwiches)

Cucumber and Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese (finger sandwiches)

Hash Brown Casserole

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Peach Cobbler

Pumpkin Bread

This was the only pic I got of the spread.

The house was decked out and Lucy Loo was on her best bunhavior.

I made Candy Corn Bars as a take home for the guests.

The stressful thing about two Type A's hosting a big brunch on Saturday?  We spent all of Friday night cleaning and baking and cleaning and double checking things and cleaning.  As fate would have it, our refrigerator bit the dust this morning.  So did our vacuum cleaner.  A couple of years ago this would have sent me heading for the hills.  But now?  I took it all in stride.  Our fridge has been on the fritz since we bought the house, so we'll just have to buckle down and get a new one.  And a new vacuum cleaner.  I would actually prefer an entire cleaning staff that would also attend to Lucy but we live in sqaulor and that's not an option.

The awesome thing, though?  It's early Saturday afternoon and our house is spotless.  We are in our pj's and have leftovers for the rest of the weekend.  Thank goodness the garage is cold enough to store food and drinks in :)  I have a new book waiting for me, and I think there *may* just possibly be a nap in my future.

Hope your fall weekend is a good one.