Commencing brain dump in 3… 2… 1…

We’re squarely into fall. What have I been doing since August? I seem to be busy. I don’t have kids, but things get busy when the kids and college students go back to school.

As always there is Iowa Hawkeye football with Saturday-consuming fun that includes tailgating, painful losses, awesome wins, and homecoming. I think we turned a corner with our trouncing of Wisconsin last week.

Since the beginning of September, I’ve been taking a knitting class at a local knitting shop. The class is through Kirkwood for eight weeks and I have one class left. Its been fun even though I’m the youngest person in the class by 10 or 20 years. I’m working on my first cable scarf (the first thing I’ve made just for myself) and have also learned new and better techniques that I didn’t have before. The class is offered often and people take it over and over. I may take it again in the spring after I have mastered all the new things I’ve learned. I really need to update my knitting project photos as I have a lot of things I’ve made that I haven’t shown off.

Also in the creative vein, I’ve been rehearsing with a “Sax-tet” that Jerry put together. We’re working on Christmas music to perform in December. We consist of a soprano, an alto, two tenors, and a bari. Its been a lot of fun to get together and play my good tenor (not my abused marching horn) and music that isn’t for marching band. I’ll keep you all posted on when and where we will perform.

On the home front, my new cats, Mulder and Scully, have settled in and pretty much run my apartment, both literally and figuratively. I have oodles of pictures of them to share. Mulder has apparently gotten a bit too much love from me as he’s gained 3 pounds since I got him and now tips the scales at 18.5 pounds! Someone got new light cat food this weekend.
Currently I am trying to wrest a bit of control back by toilet training them. Yes, toilet training for cats! I know it can be done because we had a friend/neighbor when I was young who had a toilet trained cat. I knew I wanted to pursue it when I got new furry family after Mac passed, but Mulder made the choice even easier. Both cats used the litter box just fine, but Mulder had this very annoying habit of digging in the litter box for fun. It could be completely clean and he’d just dig and dig and dig until he hit the bottom of the box. The problem, beyond the annoying sound, was that he would quickly reduce the corn-based cat litter I used to a fine yellow dust, which he would then track all over my apartment. Cats. I’m using a kit from CitiKitty and we’re into week 3. Scully had a small setback yesterday, but the website has many tips for getting them back on track and so far, so good. Hopefully they’ll be trained by Christmas.

Haven’t seen too many movies as of late. The fall TV season has returned and my TiVo always has a stockpile of shows for me to watch. But I have gotten a bit of my recommended daily allowance of theater time. ‘The Dark Knight’ in IMAX is truly amazing. Its still playing in many IMAX theaters, check it out, its worth the drive (if you have to make one). I enjoyed ‘Eagle Eye’ for your action-packed, computers-take-over-the-world needs. ‘The Dutchess’ was gorgeous and well-acted, but be fair warned, its a rather melancholy tale. I’m looking forward to the November and December holiday/awards season offerings.

I saw Kathy Griffin at the beginning of the month with Doogie and Colleen. She was super hysterical and it was a great show despite it being strangely held in Carver-Hawkeye Arena since Hancher is currently out of commission. But beyond that, I haven’t been to any concerts since I saw the Bones the night before the very first home football game at the end of August. I’m saving up my vacation and gas money to hit the road and see Harry (YAY!) four times in December. He has a new Christmas album coming out on Election Day and I can’t wait to get it.

I guess that’s all for the moment.

First off let me wish a belated shared birthday to Muiread, my cousin Mary K., and John Mayer. Hope everyone had a pleasant day.

I worked yesterday, lest my co-workers riot for the lack of treats. I made peanut butter brownies using the recipe from Camp Wesley Woods. They tasted just like I remembered. And for those chomping at the bit to get the recipe so you too can relive your camp days, I’ll get it posted this weekend.

Over my lunch hour I completed the oh-so-exciting task of renewing my drivers’ license. Five years already? Where does the time go? The picture is acceptable but I’m still not sold on the overly girly pink license. Can’t we get black and gold ones? Please?

After work, I was joined by Jerry, Sara, Taly, Diane, Colleen, and Ben for a very tasty birthday dinner at Blackstone. I got some fun cards, a beautiful green necklace from the Kollasches, and then a big group gift that I will show off here since some of the contributors live way out of town and most likely haven’t seen what they were actually giving me.

I give you the Obama scarf!

It is beautiful and soft and warm, as it should be as it is cashmere! Recycled cashmere to be precise. A local Iowa City woman has a line of recycled cashmere items called Elf Cashmere. My first cashmere anything. Thank you so much! I was completely surprised!

Here’s close up on the detail of the big handmade Obama logo

For those of you wondering what will become of it after Nov. 4th, or when I’m not in an “O” kind of mood; simple, I just turn it over. The other side is plain black. I usually wear my scarves tucked into my jacket anyway. It will look great under my new gray wool pea coat (that is out for delivery as I type!). The group also got me a gift card to Oyama sushi. They do know me well.

After a tasty meal, D came over to my place and we watched some ‘Survivor’ and then rocked some Guitar Hero.

While we were rockin’ out, I got a text/pix message from Stacey with the present to top off the night. A picture of Mark after he’d shaved! ;) Love it!

After D headed home, I watched ‘The Office’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and called it a night. Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes online, via text and in card form!

Sunday, Sept. 14th was Taly’s 2nd birthday. Family, friends, and photos ensued.

Clicking any picture will take you to the original on Flickr where you can see it larger. [I'm still working on getting Flickr integration squared away.]

There are six more pictures in the album.