Random Saturday Musings

This is what I saw when I took the dogs outside this morning. How gorgeous is this tree! There are four of them in a group behind my apartment. I normally walk the dogs across the street in front of my apartment (where there are no red trees but lots of pretty yellow ones) but we went out back for a change today, mostly because I just wanted to stand under the red trees. When the morning sun shines through them, the light becomes a magical filtered pinky-red that almost sparkles. It's like having a peach bulb in your lamps -- everything looks more beautiful in this light. This is one of the reasons fall is my favorite time of year. The photo is clickable, and I left it a large file so that it will expand to fill your screen. Go ahead and click on it -- I'll wait.

We're getting closer to Thanksgiving! One of my sons and his family (including their Chihuahua, Roxie) and my brother and his wife are coming to visit for the weekend, which means I'll get to cook a huge dinner. I've been planning the menu for weeks, and I think I finally have it finalized, after input from everyone who will be eating. We're having all the traditional stuff, as it turns out. Some things are just too good to change, and Thanksgiving dinner is one of them. We'll have interesting food for dinner on Friday and Saturday, but for Thursday, we're sticking to the classics.

I've been avoiding cleaning. Well, not avoiding actually. I'm in the middle of about a hundred different things -- cleaning out the spare bedroom, putting an end-table and some shelves together, petting the dogs, making some surprises for the girls, cleaning bathrooms, knitting socks (just because I like to), washing windows and dusting blinds -- you know, all the usual stuff you do before company comes. Even though they won't be here until Wednesday evening, I have to have most of it done by Monday because the carpet cleaner guys are coming in the morning. I should just focus on one thing until it's finished, but at least this way, everything will be finished at the same time -- until then, it just looks like a hurricane landed in my apartment.