I know, I know. This September reading report is long overdue. The books have been sitting on my desk for weeks waiting for me to get around to writing them up. Credit the library with getting me off my butt, as they’ve refused to let me renew some books again and would like them back yesterday, thank you very much.

So in honor of Halloween, I offer you demigods, ghosts, and a trio of witches, as well as several other casts of characters: (more…)

That was pretty much our weekend. Friday night, we headed over to Sweetpea‘s for a Halloween party she and her neighbor were throwing. Rudi went as a lobbyist and I went as a feminist Red Riding Hood. Thanks to our friend John who said he was dressing up when he called to coordinate transportation; otherwise, we would have just gone as ourselves. It’s amazing what you can come up with in an hour!

Saturday we got some old electronics out of the Burrow in D.C.’s biannual electronic/hazardous waste recycling. We just missed it in the spring, so it was a great relief to have these things out of the apartment. Then we headed over to Virginia to hang out with our friend Pat and his son Jack and bottle some root beer that Sweetpea and I brewed last month. In case you were wondering, brewing beer is much more fun for a three year-old than bottling is. I head back next weekend to do more of both, so expect a more robust report then.

We had to mop up a little water before we left Saturday morning, but we were lucky in that three straight days of rain didn’t cause any big headaches. I suppose this is why our apartment decor includes a kickboard of towels, though. We’ve learned finally after all these years!

Today I hit the farmers’ market earlyish, intending to spend my day productively. I filled my basket with lots of seasonal goodies and got a lead on a terrific-tasting turnip soup. Rudi and I headed back to the Burrow and ate breakfast, and then I promptly fell asleep for the whole afternoon. I roused myself around 3:30 and we moseyed around the neighborhood, stopping to check out the new music releases and to buy some warm drinks. We took them up to Malcolm X (aka Meridian Hill) Park to listen to the drum circle. The park was clearly created with the area’s original millionaires in mind and is ornate with fountains and benches and a Beaux Arts design. Today, it has truly become D.C.’s people’s park and is where you definitely find a cross-cut of the District’s society. In the spring, you find Latinos playing soccer and on Sunday afternoons like today there’s an amazing drum circle with all sorts of percussion instrumentalists taking part. Definitely authentic D.C.

And last night and tonight we spent as we’ve spent many nights this month — watching the Red Sox play on tv. After a shaky league championship, they came out and dominated the world series, winning in the bare minimum four games. The last time the Sox won, I was in a lonely hotel room in Michigan watching from bed and missing the celebration that would have taken place back in New England. Tonight at least I was home with Rudi who, as a Sox fan, was a delight to watch when that last out was clinched.

We celebrated their victory with tea and freshly baked apple crisp. Winning tastes sweet indeed.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The rain that woke me from a dead sleep in Detroit on Thursday night and that has been soaking us here in D.C. yesterday and today. This is the most rain we’ve had since April they said on the news this morning. It is a real blessing to hear it pit-pattering against our windows and on the leaves overhead.

2. While in Detroit last week, I spent a night in Greektown, where I purchased four pastries to bring home as souvenirs. (Don’t you love edible souvenirs?) Rudi and I split all four and got to sample godly baklava, a custard roll, a chocolate-dipped coconut bar, and a nut and honey filled delectable I can’t remember the name of. The young woman who helped me wrapped each pastry in wax paper, placed it in a white box, and tied it with red string. I was delighted and so was Rudi.

3. Since the weather has cooled off, it’s been a week of wearing fun hats for me. I have two newsboy caps (one in green corduroy and one in brown tweed) that I wore earlier in the week. Today’s was a cute felted fedora-ish number I bought (at a Gap) in London. If it stays cool, I may break out one of my handknits later this week or maybe a witch’s hat for tomorrow night’s Halloween party.

It’s not remotely beautiful to lose a furry friend, but the amount of joy and love they add to one’s life can’t begin to be quantified. Please stop by Debby‘s blog and let her know you’ll be thinking of Chris and her.

I would like it noted here that it is remarkably frustrating to witness someone being micromanaged. I might be able to understand it if an employee were inept, incompetent, or in training, but otherwise there is absolutely no excuse for it. Either trust your good employees to do their work correctly (with you checking in periodically for status reports to make sure there aren’t any hiccups) or DO IT YOURSELF.

I chafe under such conditions and would resort either to passive-aggressive behavior on my own part of just ignoring the instructions that were pointless or to extreme, obvious, and job-endangering sarcasm.

(N.B.: This has nothing to do with my own employment, as Suzanne is a lovely boss.)

I stole a movie meme from Craftylilly’s website instead of creating actual content of my own.

Keeping in mind that I don’t watch movies that are heavy on violence or that focus on war (because they are inherently heavy on violence), are there any on my list that you’d suggest I grab from Blockbuster ASAP? (more…)

… but it won’t get me a failing grade, either, on the Civic Literacy Test put out by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

“You answered 48 out of 60 correctly — 80.00 %
Average score for this quiz during October: 70.5%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.5%”

Apparently a stronger grasp of American economic history and macroeconomics in general would serve me well, according to the ISI.