The dogs are running the house

Yep . . . the beasts are out of control.

In one particular night of weakness, we had Obie seconds away from eating the cheese. And Winston did one of his slow motion launches on the couch. This is where he takes 10-15 minutes to get himself on the couch thinking that if he does it slow enough, we won't notice.

In case you weren't following, the dogs are not allowed on the furniture normally - but we've had our moments of weakness.

Just in Time Fall Raking

OK, just to let you know - I only rake leaves once a year. The whole idea of trying to keep up with the leaves each week is like trying to carry 5 gallons of water up a hill with your hands.

Kudos to my neighbor who keeps up with the raking each week, but 30 minutes after he's done, you can't tell the difference between the two yards. Besides, I just throw the leaves in the garden for winter mulch.

I must say I am a bit behind on this one - I haven't raked the leaves yet, and now there's snow on the ground - hopefully things will dry up in the next couple days, so we can get it done.

Japanese Maple

Pretty stunning, huh.

Fall in our neighborhood is absolutely fantastic with all the varieties of mature trees in the area changing color - and our Japanese maple held its own this year with a really nice display. Granted the puppy is microscopic - about 4 feet tall - but it was still awesome.

Choucroute Night

With Jean-Jacques Seymour in town from France, and Jim having a craving for pig parts - we decided to do a choucroute night at our house.

You can read the wikipedia entry, but I'll do my best to explain the dish. It's essentially Alsatian for sauerkraut, but it's the 'garni' part that's important - usually various sausages, ham hocks, bacon (kind of), and salted porks.

Of course, the french would have long debates as to which pieces of said pig are true choucroute - but it's a pretty simple dish. Choucroute, along with andouillette, is what I call the "Idiot Savant" dishes of french cuisine.

Most Americans would find french cuisine to be very refined, inventive, and very, very good; but every now and then they throw in dishes that they just absolutely love across the country and at the same time make an American want to hurl.

Anyway . . . to make a choucroute takes some time (like 4 hours in the oven). So Jim, JJ, and myself ran home from work, threw it together (not hard, but there was some onion and potato chopping). Thank God for automatic ovens that can be pre-programmed.

We also made an onion tart - another interesting story, since I had no recipe - and drank about 8 bottles of wine between the 8 of us - oops (and it was a school night).

Simple Xmas Tree

Although we both have a ton of ornaments from over the years, I decided to keep it pretty simple this year for the Xmas tree - non-descript silver and gold. I did put the new ornaments this year - Eeyore and Patrick's Hummingbird ornament - but that was about it.

Picture doesn't do the tree justice - Martha Stewart is still a hack.

Xmas Decoration Up

As per tradition (well, forget about the last two years, when we were in France), I put Xmas decorations up the Friday after Thanksgiving. I give the stores crap for pulling out the Xmas decorations around October 1st, so I definitely don't do this any sooner than after Thanksgiving.

Of course, also per tradition - Patrick runs for the hills. Well, to the racing auction downtown that thankfully happens each week around Thanksgiving. Unfortunately this time I was a little behind schedule with the dining room table filled with crap (it needed to be inventory controlled, so it took me longer than usual). I wasn't sure if he was just going to turn around and go back to the auction, or just stand in the middle of the front hall with an overwhelming fear of moving.

Getting Better

Although it kind of happened by accident - I am getting better at this glass blowing thing.

This particular "vase" was done during open studio (less pressure). I had a lot of glass - more than I usually do. And I had gotten the upper two thirds really hot - a nice orange and barely holding its shape. With a couple swings to straighten it out, I then just stood there and waited for the puppy to just get longer and longer and longer. It's a good two and a half feet tall, and reminds me of the "I Dream of Jennie" bottle.

Of course, future attempts to try to recreate the same form have all failed - trying again tonight.

Fruit Trees come in

The frosts are just around the corner, so that can only mean one thing - the cirtus trees are all packed into the house. Had to get a picture of them now, where the leaves are nice and full - give them four months instead, and they will look like pathetic trees just aching to get back outside.

And with the low rain, it will be interesting to see if any of them flower this year - unlikely - since they were looking pretty pathetic at the end of last winter, and they weren't too happy this summer.

First Amaryllis

The first Amaryllis has bloomed - didn't take too long after we remembered to water it. Alas I don't know the variety, but it's a big one.

I've been thinking of starting a new collection of bulbs like we had a couple of years ago, but realized that they might suffer the same fate in our basement as the last ones (forgotten about for a year).

Patrick is Back !!!

Patrick took a week off to go Elk hunting in Colorado with his Dad, brothers, uncles, and cousins - and from all accounts he had an amazing time. Of course, I was going to go on a Buddhist retreat, but the Zen monasteries close by looked like they drank a little too much Kool-Aid. Instead, I just meditated a lot - otherwise, I would have completely cataloged our books with the Dewey decimal system.

Regardless, the temperatures were unseasonably warm (are you listening, Al?) - so the hunting was really bad for this time of year. Only one guy in the group got an Elk, when normally almost everyone does - but it was still a good time. The other good part about it being warmer than usually is that Patrick figured out the holes in his warm clothing armor.