Saturday, September 18, 2010

the first signs of fall ...

today i woke up and it was cold, and cloudy and grey, and perfect.
it almost felt like fall was here.
{i say almost because the forecast for tomorrow is 93. not cool.}

of course i've been spending my day studying.
remember, i'm not cool anymore.

i did take a quick break to wander the 'hood with henry.
{don't feel bad for dunkin. he's gotten lots of ball-playing time.}

lazy saturday walk
he's slowly learning to be an awesome on-leash dog.
and off leash, too, actually.
two weeks ago we walked around the entire neighborhood without a leash and he never left my side.
that's an entire hour of "being a good dog". i'm pretty proud of the guy.

starting to change ...
i see leaves starting to change.

i see red!
actual colors.
hopefully they'll change completely before they just fall off the tree.

i also saw my first pumpkin.
i know there are people who feel like pumpkins are only for october, but i love them. especially baked into things.

our wreath
our fall wreath.
i'm not telling you when i put this up.
it may or may not have been before labor day.

now back to studying ...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

it's the little things ...

a sweet (meat loving) cat

... an organized closet.
... a clean puppy.
... getting boots in the mail.
... cool mornings with the promise of fall.
... playing with my dogs when i get home from work.
... getting out of class 15 minutes early.
... sushi on a wednesday night.
... evening walks.
... watching the broncos on a sunday.
... thinking about christmas decorations.
... turning the radio on at the exact second a good song is starting.
... late night talks + tea in bed.
... flowers that last over two weeks.
... pumpkin cupcakes next month.
... and pumkin cake ... and bread ... and carving.
... parenthood is back.

Monday, September 13, 2010

charlie love.

"i'm not the silly romantic you think.
i don't want the heavens or the shooting stars.
i don't want gemstones or gold.
i have those things already.
i want... a steady hand.
a kind soul.
i want to fall asleep, and wake,
knowing my heart is safe.
i want to love and be loved."
~shana ab

Sunday, September 12, 2010

*sigh*

this weekend was supremely lazy.
i mean aside from reading multiple massive policy papers, pulling out my fall clothes (ok, more like 4 sweaters), washing the mutt, and doing 14 hours of laundry, i didn't do much.

the face of judgement
and neither did this guy.

this whole work/school combo has my head spinning all day and night long.
all the reading i've been doing for school feels like it's just one, long paper and when we discuss these things in class i find myself referencing different papers than the ones we're discussing.
although, the good news is that they're all so alike it's not always obvious that i have no clue what we're actually talking about.

i've been having the craziest dreams, too.
although i don't usually remember the details when i wake up.
if i did, and freud was alive, he'd have a field day with my subconscious.

i've just pretty much accepted that for the next 8 months i'll be no fun.
and i'm really ok, with that.
i could {obviously} take less classes, but that would mean more semesters in school and i'm pretty much over being in school.

the more classes i take, the more i realize that i'm sort of a misfit in the world of environmental science scholars. i'll be happy when i have my diploma.

ps. no judgement, but i sort of (ok, really want to) see that movie easy a.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

fourmile fire

if you live in colorado then you probably know that a wildfire started just outside of boulder in fourmile canyon on monday morning.

about an hour after the fire started, we decided to leave to hike mt. sanitas.
i've hiked sanitas probably about 5 times and it's definitely one of my favorite places to take people or to meet a friend for a quick hike when you don't have all day.

as we got on 36 we noticed a huge cloud of smoke.
after googling "boulder", twitter informed us that there was, in fact, a fire.

we decided not to hike sanitas (a good thing because sunshine canyon was later evacuated).
and stopped at the overlook along with news crews and everyone else.

4 mile fire
this was probably about 2 hours after the fire started.

instead of sanitas we went south to the doudy draw trailhead.
definitely a boring walk, but not in the path of a huge fire.

four mile fire
this was on the community ditch trail, just east of eldorado.

i've seriously been obsessed with this fire since.
and i cannot believe how many people have been and are being evacuated.



julia child's beef bourguignon

sunday, we were super lazy and did nothing other than laze around all day, cook, and watch movies.

i finally crossed this dish off of my "2010 things to do list" and i was glad to have some cooking company. it would have been a long, lonely day otherwise.

the meal started with some chopping:
chopped onion + a carrot

moved on to boiling water for some bacon (which i thought was slightly odd)

steam


more raw meet
raw bacon (we couldn't find lardon)

[we got hungry during the cooking and ate approximately a million cookies]
cookies to eat while cooking

here's the boiled bacon:
bacon

we (excluding me) made a BLT for charlie with the extra bacon
something to make with leftover bacon (a BLT) and someone to eat it (Charlie)

we used A LOT of this. if julia was really all about the butter, she would have been proud.
butter (don't worry, we had lots left over)

we chopped some more:

raw meet ... yuck

delicious mushrooms


onions!

and then cooked some more:

browned rump roast


onions + a carrot

halfway done!

all the copping and cooking made a bit of a mess:
a mess

and made for some very bored animals:
a tired dog to keep you company

BUT, 24 hours later, we had a meal:

mmm ... beef stew

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

saturday.

three day weekends are amazing.

saturday included:

flowers
fresh flowers,

walks around boulder complete with,


cupcakes and iced coffee,

vin + ice cream
ice cream,

DSC_0177
playing around with the new lens,

boulder bikes
bikes,

hats
trying on hats with long distance visitors, and drinks on a rooftop bar.

Then we came home, grilled out, and invited a few people over to say goodbye to summer.