Holiday weekends

Stick Fire

Kate Greenaway

We've gone from record hot temperatures to "unseasonably cool" literally overnight.  While it's pleasant to feel the season changing, this is a bit abrupt. September in Seattle is usually a perfect month- mellow, dry and warm.  We're starting out chilly and damp.  The down comforter is back on the bed and the winter pj's dug out from the bottom of the drawer.  The house is so cool this morning I'm surprised the furnace hasn't come on.

They said on the news that a record number of people will fill up with cheap gas and hit the road this weekend, but we won't be joining them.  Northwest holiday weekends are a good time to stay home, as far as I'm concerned.  John has one of those big "decade" birthdays to celebrate on Sunday.  Since I've already been there, done that one, I know how he feels.  A gnocchi dinner might cheer him up some. 

 

 The Lesson

John Eastman

I had a nice surprise call from Amanda during her work break yesterday, and we talked about the girls. Maya loves her Little Star preschool, and Nova seems to like first grade, but it's hard to get much real information out of a six-year old.  We all remember those parent-child conversations:

"How was school?" 
"Fine."
"What did you do today?"
"Different stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"You know."
(And so on.)

A Bedtime Story

Seymour Joseph Guy

Halloween must be just around the corner judging from the stores. All that candy!  I remember when Halloween had a more sinister thrill.

This painting reminds me of our older sister Marji. She loved to read out loud to Dave and me, especially horrific stories from our collection of Grimm's fairy tales. Stories about bad, vain girls who can't stop dancing in red shoes until their feet are chopped off by woodmen.  Somehow we escaped being scarred for life by those tales.  (I think.)